The New Storm
by PegasusHydra
Summary: The Seven are on their quest to defeat Gaea. Christine Vang is a new demigod. She thought that she was a regular person with really bad luck, but no. She was a demigod WITH really bad luck. She's the first demigod in a while to cause that much trouble. "Small" problems are popping up here and there, and it's up to Christine to stop them.
1. Chapter 1

It was the last day of school. Surely I could make it through the day with no trouble… I never knew how wrong I was.

I'm Christine Vang. I'm in 8th grade. I do well in my studies, but most of my teachers dislike me—and they have a good reason, so I can't complain.

Weird things happen whenever I'm around. There was this one time when we went on a field trip to the library (obviously our school had _very_ creative field trips), and books started tumbling down wherever I went. So I was walking next to my science teacher, and the books fell on her head. And that book just so happened to be a heavy dictionary.

Yup, that science teacher loves me.

And there was this other time, for instance, when a dog followed me to school. I didn't think anything of it since dogs seemed to like me for some odd reason. But it followed me all the way inside the school, but hey. What can an innocent little dog do? It was bound to leave soon.

But no, it didn't leave. When my math teacher came in, the dog attacked him. When he finally got the dog off his face, it was full of scratches. When he asked who brought the dog, everyone pointed to me.

There's a bunch of other strange things that got me sent into the office and got on my record, but I won't explain them.

I was in my fifth period science class when my teacher, Mrs. Huff, got a phone call.

"Hello?" she said, and all of us started yapping really loudly.

The person on the other side said something.

"Okay, thank you," she sighed. She hung up and rolled her eyes. "Vang, to the office."

My jaw dropped. "Why?"

"Because you did something obviously," Mrs. Huff said, crossing her arms.

"Um, do I bring my things?"

"You know the routine," she said. She pointed out the door. "Go."

I rolled my eyes when I turned around to get my stuff. Some of the students were snickering. Curse them.

"What did you do?" Lesvos asked.

Lesvos was my only friend in the whole school. I only had one other friend besides him, but I never got to see her often.

Lesvos always went by Le, saying that his name sounded old-fashioned. He had curly brown hair and chestnut colored eyes. He had a lifelong excuse for PE, which I envied.

"Nothing!" I hissed. "It's like they're just trying to find some way to get me in trouble!"

I shouldered my backpack and walked out the room, ignoring the stares behind me. My eyes lingered on a quiet girl, Erin, I think her name was, who never got in trouble. Like, never. I hated her. I didn't know why. She never talked to me or did anything wrong. But I had a strong feeling of resentment for her.

I sighed and walked to the office. Why did I have to get in trouble on the last day of school? Did it even matter? But then again, I was talking about a school that made us work, even on the last day of school.

"Vang, you're here," the principal, Mr. Greene said.

Mr. Greene was a middle-aged man. He was pretty dumpy, and he _never_ went outside unless the sun wasn't out. Literally. He was never out on patrol, and as far as I knew, he never went to the restroom, since the nurse's office was in another building.

"I've noticed," I muttered. I've gotten friendly with the principal after like three years of coming here almost every week. "Where's Ms. Randall?"

"Out," he smiled. His wrinkles made him look creepy, like a monster. "You'll be talking with me."

"It's the last day of school," I said. "What are you going to do? Give me detention? Flunk me?—which you can't do since I still have a 4.0 GPA."

His smile quickly contorted into a sneer. "Come this way."

He led me to Ms. Randall's room, who was the 8th grade counselor. She was nice to everyone, even me, which was rare. She gave me a feeling that I actually _belonged_ in this world.

Her room was messier than usual. She didn't really care about being tidy, since everything gets messed up again. But this was _chaos._

Papers were all over the floor. Folders and binders were scattered, and the computer was facing the wrong direction showing everyone's grades. The cords were tangled and seemed like they were going to rip any second. She even spilled some fruit punch on the floor.

"Sit," he said, gesturing to a chair that fell over.

I picked it up, and saw that the fruit punch landed all the way over here.

"I'll stand, thanks," I said.

Mr. Greene sat on Ms. Randall's chair despite the fruit punch. Ew.

"We know you've been having problems throughout the year," he said, picking up a red folder.

I swallowed, not knowing what to say.

"But we hardly know each other and you're leaving this school soon," he said. "Let's get to know each other."

My eyes darted around the room like when I felt nervous or that something was wrong. The way he said it was creepy. And if that wasn't enough, he had that weird smile on his face and his eyes glinted with a strong emotion that I couldn't place.

"Favorite color?" he asked.

"That's hardly relevant," I said.

"Answer," he growled.

"Blue or silver," I said.

Too late, I should've realized that I should've lied. Colors probably didn't matter, but I didn't want this creep to know anything about me.

"Good," he said writing down some notes. "Favorite subject?"

"Science," I lied. Science was actually my most hated subject, and Mrs. Huff didn't make it any better.

"History," he mused. "Lying now I see."

I wondered how he knew that, but then again, I wasn't a good liar. I might be able to fool some of my peers or my parents, but not other adults. I don't know why, and it frustrates me to no end.

"I suggest you tell me the truth," he said. "Favorite book?"

_What are we doing? Playing 20 questions?_ I thought. "Harry Potter," I lied.

"The Unwind series," he said. "Not very smart of you, not following my advice."

"Maybe not smart of me, but it's logical to keep information from a stranger," I said.

I nervously rubbed the zebra on my necklace. It was a gift that my mom's friend had bought for me a few years ago. I didn't wear it for a while, since I already had another plain gold necklace around my neck, but I started wearing both recently.

"Fair enough," he nodded. "So you had over…" he checked Ms. Randall's computer, which made me mad. He didn't deserve to touch her stuff. "fifty visits to the office," he said. "Approximately 248."

I scowled. "And what am I supposed to do with that _fascinating _fact?"

He ignored me. "You prank called the police saying that you saw a giant come out from black lightning during a school lockdown."

Oh… That time. I wouldn't have called the police normally, but it was urgent.

"It wasn't a prank call," I said. "I _saw_ it."

"No one ever saw it," he said. "Or the black lightning."

"I'm not color blind," I said. "It was coming towards the school."

"The police couldn't find anything," Mr. Greene went on. "The only thing they found was some snakes!"

"It doesn't matter," I said through gritted teeth. "It was in the past anyway."

"Do you have a phone?" he asked.

I huffed. "No, and even if I had one, I wouldn't tell you my number. If you wanted it, that'd be disgusting."

"Really," he said. "Then whose phone did you use?"

"None of your business," I said.

"I can make some last minute grade changes and make you repeat the grade."

"The report cards are already printed," I said. "And I already got into a high school."

He grip on his pen tightened and it snapped.

"I used Rosa's after I stole it from her backpack when she was bullying someone," I gulped.

"But you don't have a phone."

I nodded, feeling like a coward.

"That makes things easier," he said, and stood up, towering over me.

My eyes flitted around the room, rubbing the zebra. I noticed smaller details that I didn't notice before. Ms. Randall's glasses were in pieces on the floor. She'd never let that happen. The fruit punch didn't seem like fruit punch. It was somewhat dried now and seemed like a darker color. It didn't smell like fruit punch. And there was black fur on Mr. Green's uniform. There wasn't any dust or fuzz here. Did he keep pets?

There were other red folders like mine, scattered throughout the room. They all had the word _CONFIDENTIAL_ on the front. The weirdest thing? I saw a white thing sticking out from the bottom of the table. And it looked like a bone. A human one.

My blood turned cold. Mr. Greene might be a monster, but he wasn't a _real_ one… Right?

My shoulders turned stiff as Mr. Greene stepped toward me. I wanted to move back, but my legs were frozen in place.

"That phone call made everything easier," he said smugly. "We never would've found you if it wasn't for that call."

I must've had a confused look on my face because he laughed. "Yes, I'm the principal, but I was only the principal for about a month."

"N-no," I said. "You were here since I was in sixth grade."

He made a tutting sound that I hated coming from adults. "You have a weak mentality, my dear. I'm not surprised, really. You brain was overpowered by the Mist."

I felt like collapsing. I had known that, or at least suspected that since I was always beating myself up or thinking about other harmful things others might have said to me.

I was somewhat proud of my physical strength, and some people were afraid of me. But I was afraid that they might see through that and see who I actually was inside.

I took a step back, and he stepped forward. "Where's Ms. Randall?"

"Lunch," he said.

"Liar," I said.

He growled, and something strange happened. His hair grew out up to his shoulders, and his body hair grew long and shaggy. Gross. His face melted into a dog shape.

"Usually we come out when there's no sun or in the winter, but you're a special exception," he said.

I bolted out the room, scared out of my mind. I ran out of the office, and the door exploded behind me. Mr. Greene bared his teeth.

I turned and ran outside. Mr. Greene roared loudly, and the cloud covered the sun. The temperature dropped, giving me slight goose bumps. He started chasing after me, and I ran past the PE area. It was already sixth period. I was supposed to be there right now.

I jeered to the left and ran to the lockers. Mr. Greene kept running on his hind feet.

I knew that he would overtake me sooner or later. My backpack was weighing me down, and I was pretty sure that he would out speed me even without my backpack. The only reason why I was ahead was because I had a head start. That and also that he paused by every single tree that we passed by. Maybe he had an obsession for trees?

I kept running, not knowing where I was going. For that moment, the school that I had spent three years in seemed like a foreign place. I felt like slowing down and taking a breath, but if I did, I'd probably get killed. It was like PE, just more dangerous. Then the next thing I knew, I was cornered against the lockers.

"Foolish mortal," he laughed. "You don't even know what's happening, do you?"

"Go away," I said, and tried pushing him away. When that didn't work, I kicked where the sun doesn't shine.

He howled, and I ran off again. I felt the zebra on my necklace growing hotter. I held it in my fingers, and there was a flash.

My necklace fell off and sank into the ground. A zebra sprang forth from the place where my necklace was. But it looked different from others. Its stripes were a bronze color, along with its hooves and mane. Its body was made of silver, like a machine.

It whinnied and dipped its head as if wanting me to get on.

I hesitated. What if it knocked me off? I looked back and saw Mr. Greene coming this way.

"It's now or never," I murmured and hopped on.

I held onto its neck and it raced past Mr. Greene and through the hallways. It seemed to know its way around everything. Although I could know tell that this was some sort of machine, the texture of it seemed pretty real.

"Over there," I said, directing it to the PE area. "Le is there."

The zebra seemed to understand and raced over and skidded to a stop in front of Le who was in the PE office filing papers. Poor guy.

"Christine?" Le said with wide eyes. "What—"

"No time," I said. "Hop on."

I told him what happened as I directed the zebra back to the front of the school. We passed by Mr. Greene who tried to get a swipe at us but missed.

"Christine," he said. "That was a _kallincantzari._ Or _kalkes._ Same thing. But anyway, what's it doing here?"

"What do you mean?"

"They can't come out in the sun," Le said. "They only come to this world during winter."

"He said that I was a special exception." _Why was this school so big?_

Mr. Greene was right behind us.

"No matter," Le said. "The gates are right over there!"

"Just a little more," I agreed, hoping that he wouldn't catch us.

We were almost out when Mr. Greene said, "Gotcha."

The zebra reared, and knocked us off. I landed hard on my elbow. Looks like my worry did come true after all.

Mr. Greene tried to move around the zebra, but it wouldn't let him. It raised it hooves and pounded them down on his head. He disintegrated into dust. The zebra looked at me and faded away into the ground.

"What just happened?" I asked. "Le, don't lie. Tell me."

Le chewed his lip. "We have no time right now. The others might find you. Can you move?"

I tried getting up, but pain flared up my elbow. "Ah!"

"Oh dear," Le muttered. "Christine, you're gonna have to come with me. Do you trust me?"

"Yeah," I said without thinking.

"Okay then. Let's go," he said.

* * *

**I know there are like a billion OC stories on this site and I'm rewriting mine so often. Congrats if you managed to read all the way here without hating it.**

**The first few chapter of the story will be based on my story from Demigods of Olympus. It's not exactly what happened, but it's based loosely on it. I don't know my godly parent in the story yet, so I'll go with my opinion on it, and when I find out, I'll change it later.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm surprised I actually got a review. It's not a favorite or a follow, but oh well.**

**princesslolitatheorca654- I'm glad you like it.  
**

**I like writing this more than I thought. Haha.**

* * *

"Can you walk?" Le asked as he helped me up.

I rolled my eyes. "I hurt my elbow, not my leg. I'm pretty sure I don't walk with my elbows."

Le smirked. "Thanks for that image."

He led me a few blocks away from the school. I shivered. It was still cold from that trick that Mr. Greene had done.

"Le, tell me what's going on," I said.

Le sighed. "It's just going to attract more monsters, but I don't think I can change your mind."

He walked around a bush and moved away a huge boulder. There was a set of stairs leading downwards letting out the smell of fresh earth.

"Ladies first," he said, gesturing to the stairway.

"Is it safe?" I asked.

"Yes, I've been there a million times and I'm still alive," he said, rolling his eyes.

I punched his shoulder playfully as I went down the stairs. The ceiling got lower and the staircase got narrower. The light disappeared. My breathing quickened and my legs felt like jelly.

"Just straight down," Le said. He must've heard my breaths. "Keep your hand on the wall."

I gulped and did what he said. I kept feeling like something was going to jump out at me in the dark. The tight space wasn't helping.

"You didn't happen to bring a flashlight, did you?" I said quietly, almost like a whisper.

"Nope," he said. Then he added sheepishly, "I didn't think we would be coming down here today. Sorry."

"It's fine," I said under my breath. "Everything's fine."

Then the staircase opened up to a room. It wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. There were a few wooden shelves on the wall stocked with bottles and canteens. In the middle, there was a wooden table with a few chairs. There were small torches giving out a faint light.

"Sit," Le said, and rummaged around the shelves.

I pulled out a chair and let my arm fall loosely on my side.

"So," I said as Le started treating my elbow, "can you tell me now?"

Le took a deep breath, and wrapped my arm in a bandage. "Where should I start?"

"Anywhere that'll make the explanation short," I said tapping my fingers on my knee.

"You're a demigod."

Well, that was straightforward. A demigod… Half-mortal, half-god according to the Greek myths.

"That's not true," I said.

"Really?" he said in a challenging tone. "Then how can you explain all those crazy things that happened in your life?"

I tried to form an answer, but couldn't. A coincidence? That was ridiculous. All those things were too crazy for coincidences. And I've heard, "There's no such things as coincidences," too many times.

"You can't expect me to believe something that's like out-of-the-world crazy," I said. "Greek gods? No way."

Le shrugged. "It's a smarter choice to believe in them, but I can't force you to. Maybe you don't believe them, but they'll always be a part of your life."

"Great," I said. "So maybe they are real. What now?"

"We need to get you to camp," Le said seriously. "Pronto."

"Camp," I repeated.

"It's a safe haven for demigods like you," he said. "Your parents did a good job of hiding your presence. You could've survived longer, but…" His voice trailed off, but I already knew what he was thinking.

"I screwed things up," I finished. "I know that. I screw _everything_ up."

"That's not true!" Le protested, but I tuned him out—a handy trick that I earned from spending time with my dysfunctional family. "We need to get you there now. The monsters will come find you."

"How do you know?" I asked glumly.

"Your scent got stronger since today," Le said, and I decided not to ask. "We need to go _now._"

"But what about my family?" I asked, which was strange since I wasn't especially fond of my family. Family bond I guess.

"You could get killed," Le said.

"I won't," I insisted. "I just want to see them one last time before I go."

Le gave me a skeptical look.

"Plus I need my things," I added.

He didn't reply, and I stared him down. Finally he sighed. "You're so stubborn. Come back here when your family is asleep. Or if you want, I can come get you."

"I'll come on my own," I said. "I wasn't hurt _too_ badly."

"Fine," Le said. "Then let me at least walk you home. It's what friends do, right?"

I smiled faintly. "Thanks Le."

Le insisted on holding my backpack as we went back outside. The air was colder than before.

"The weather just went all wacko today," I murmured. "Ever since that monster…"

Le frowned. "But _kallincantzari_ don't have the power to change weather."

"Well, it definitely isn't natural, because it never gets cold in California!" I complained. "And it's even more unnatural since it's the middle of summer!"

"Technically the start of summer," Le corrected.

"Whatever!" I hissed. I calmed down. "Sorry. Everything's just getting to my head right now. All this being a demigod thing, and my family."

Le nodded. "It's a lot to take in. Are you cold?"

I noticed that my goose bumps were more apparent. I blushed. "Yeah. Kinda."

He dug in his backpack and gave me a sweatshirt. "Here."

"Are you sure? I mean, aren't you cold?" I asked.

"Nope," he said, and gave me the sweatshirt.

I pulled it on, glad for the warmth. "Hey, Le?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"If I'm a demigod, what are you?" I asked. "I mean, I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I don't think you're a demigod…?"

"You're right," he confirmed. "I'm a satyr, and I was sent to protect you. I'm a Keeper."

"A satyr," I said. "Half-goat, half-man?"

"Yup," he said. He kicked off his shoes and rolled up his jeans. I nearly passed out at what I saw.

He had _hooves._ And goat fur.

"Oh my gosh," I murmured. I stumbled.

Le steadied me. "Yeah, you're not the first."

"Right," I said. "What time is it right now?"

Le shrugged. "Maybe an hour or two after school?"

"Oh," my heart sank. That probably meant that my dad came home. "Uh… Le? I hope you don't mind taking a short detour to that café, do you?"

Le grinned. "Of course not."

"That's what I wanted to hear," I said, grinning back.

* * *

"So one of my parents is a god?" I asked.

I had ordered some tea and a cookie. Le had ordered a coffee, in the large size. Yeesh.

"Yup," he said.

"But my parents are like the un-godliest people ever," I said, thinking of my parents.

My mom stayed at home. She didn't have a job since she couldn't speak English fluently. My dad had a job, but he was constantly wasting money and coming home early complaining about not making enough money.

If there was a god of wasting things or complaining, he was it.

"No," Le said. "You were adopted by one, or maybe both of your parents."

"Oh," I said. I looked at the clock, tapping my fingers on the table again. The detour had taken up more time than I thought. "Le, I should be going. It's almost seven."

"Okay," Le said. "I need to get prepared for tonight. Can you walk home alone?"

"Yeah," I said. "I have like four more blocks to go."

"Sorry," he said. "I just didn't plan things out."

"It's fine," I said. "See you later."

I threw away my trash and walked out the café, splitting up with Le.

The sky was considerably darker now. The cold had subsided a little, though it was still a bit cloudy. I looked at the ground as I walked home. My heart was already creeping with dread. I stopped at the gates and looked up.

My house was pretty lackluster compared to all the other houses on the street. It was simply white with a brown roof unlike all those colorful houses. Even from the distance the house stood out, but not in a good way. I felt like I could relate. I was the odd one out, but everyone around me just made me be lost in the crowd and constantly ignored.

I sighed and rang the doorbell. My mom answered it, thankfully.

"Welcome back," she said. "You're late today."

"Sorry," I said, looking down at my feet. "Is Dad mad?"

Her eyes gave me a warning signal. Yes, he was really mad today. "Just try not to get on his nerves."

I slipped off my shoes and took out my lunch bag from my backpack.

"You're not even going to greet your dad?" my dad said, not even looking at me.

"No," I snapped. I was tired of this same routine every day. "You don't even give me a sign that you heard me when I do greet you. So why should I?"

My mom shook her head from the kitchen and I stomped upstairs to my room.

"Hey, Sis," Isabelle said. "Took your time today, didn't ya?"

I scowled at my adoptive sister. Meet Isabelle Vang, my "sister" that was one year younger than me and a huge pain in the butt. I really didn't like her. She was always the one that my parents cared the most for. Did Le say something about my parents covering for me? I do not believe that.

But I guess I had no right to hate her so badly. She wasn't mean to me—at least most of the time. But whenever I looked at her, my heart ached. I never got any attention, at both home and school. When I did, it was for a bad thing. I was always the hated one and the odd one out in both places.

"Aw, come on! Bad day?" she asked, looking up at me with her warm brown eyes. Her dyed blonde curls bounced around her face.

"Shut it," I said, and dumped by backpack on my side of the room. Yes, even though she was the most loved one, my parents couldn't get her an own room. What a pity.

Isabelle jumped on her bed. "I don't get it. Why do you hate me so much?"

"You're so untactful," I said, rolling my eyes. I looked at her out of the corner of my eye. "If you even know what that means."

It was her turn to scowl at me. "I try to be good to you, and you don't even cooperate for eight years."

"Do you even remember all the way back?" I asked, sitting at my desk and pulling out a book. "Maybe I don't _want_ to cooperate."

"Everyone likes me but you," she mumbled.

"And why should I care?" I said.

"I'm your sister for goodness sake!" she said. "You can at least let me in some part of your life!"

I froze. I never opened myself to anyone. I occasionally dropped hints like offhanded comments to see it others would notice, but they never did. That's the most I opened myself up to. Only my two friends knew what I was like.

And this whole demigod business. Did I really want Izzy in my life? I never wanted her in my life even before this. But now…?

"You are. You're in my family life," I said. "Now if you don't mind—"

"I _do_ mind!" she cried, and jumped up from her bed. "You're in _my_ room, and part of the family. Is it a big deal just to have a civil conversation?"

"No one ever listens to me," I snapped.

"I will," she said. "But you never did."

I felt like exploding. She didn't know what was going on, or how I felt for the past years of my life. When I younger, before she came, I was a happy child. Then my dad got worse with his alcohol, and my mom thought it'd be a good idea to adopt Izzy. My relationship with the family got worse after that.

They never listened to me, they didn't care about what I did. I remembered one time when I got straight A's when I entered 6th grade. I showed it off to my parents (though I wasn't really expecting from my dad), but my mom just gave it one look, and went on talking about Izzy.

I tried a few other times, but same reaction. I was stupid and naïve at the time and thought things would change once I entered middle school. I was so wrong.

I pushed back my tears. I wouldn't cry in front of Izzy. I wouldn't. "That's because you won't understand."

"How do you know when you didn't even try?" she said calmly.

I threw my book down. The hardcover made a big thump on the floor. "You sound _just_ like Mom. And I know, because I've seen and experienced things that proved that point to me. I'm not willing to try again and end up with the same results. I _know_ you won't understand."

"You are so stubborn!" she yelled. "How can you be so sure?"

"I've been through too many things that I didn't want to be in," I said back. I felt all the years of pain and sadness well through me. "You don't even know what's going on."

"I'm not a kid anymore," she said, crossing her arms. "Tell me. You always said that but you never did."

"Can't you see that I'm not in the mood to talk right now?" I said, trying to be calm about it.

"Does it look like I care?"

I clenched my hands into fists. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Izzy."

She huffed. "I'm sick of people not telling me things because I'm too _young._ I'm _not _too young for any of this!"

"Then ask our beloved parents to tell you," I said.

Something inside her snapped. She grabbed a pillow and threw it at me. I instinctively raised my arm to deflect it, but it was my right arm. The pillow hit my elbow, and I gasped.

Pain washed over me again. Le had said not to touch it. Too late now. I fell on my knees.

Izzy's eyes widened. "Christine, I'm so sorry."

"I don't care," I said, gritting my teeth. "Now go away."

She ran off with tears in her eyes. At the last minute, she turned around and yelled, "You know, Mom and Dad were right. You _are_ just a spoiled brat who thinks she's the best. You say that not everything revolves around me? Maybe you should try thinking of yourself, idiot!"

Once I heard her go down stairs, I let the tears fall out. They started streaming down my face. So that's what my parents thought of me.

"Christine?" my mom called, coming into my room. "Is everything alright?"

I wiped my tears away hastily. "Yeah. I don't think I'll be eating dinner today."

"You should still eat," she insisted.

"If I'm hungry, I'll get something later," I said. "Please, leave me alone."

I saw hurt in her eyes, and I felt bad for that, but she closed the door as she left.

I let my tears fall again, and curled up into a ball. I couldn't wait until I left.


	3. Chapter 3

**I had like the worst day today. But oh well. That's life in middle school for you. This is my longest chapter that I've ever wrote for all my stories. I guess I'm proud, but I rushed a little at the end. XD**

* * *

I heard the sobbing cries of Isabelle down below. I felt bad, but at the same time, I felt like she deserved it. I had made her cry so many times. She could be a big crybaby at times.

I picked up my book and inspected it to make sure it wasn't damaged. I sighed in relief when I saw that it wasn't in good condition.

But I didn't understand Izzy. Sometimes she seemed nice and looked like she wanted to help, and at other times, she seemed so manipulative.

"Christine, open the door," my dad said.

I didn't even bother answering. He just barged in.

"I told you to open the door," he said.

My dad was a tall person. He was in the army for about ten years. He looked pretty scary too, and he never smiled. I hated him with a passion.

"I was going to, but you opened it first," I said coolly.

He scowled. "What did you do?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"What did you do to make Izzy cry?"

"Of course," I said, throwing my hands up into the air. "Izzy! The one you care about _so_ much."

"Answer," he growled.

A sense of déjà vu hit me. Looks like we'll play 20 questions again. "She was being untactful."

"No she wasn't," he said.

"You don't even know what happened!" I said.

"I know you two well enough to guess."

_As if,_ I thought. "I didn't want anyone to talk to me. She kept trying to find out stuff that I didn't want to tell her."

"Like what?" he asked.

"Just go ask her," I said.

"Why were you even born," he muttered under his breath.

Rage flooded through me. "For the billionth time, I don't know."

"I didn't say anything," he said.

"You just said 'Why were you even born,'" I snapped.

"What kind of daughter spreads lies about their father?" he said, his voice rising.

"What kind of father asks their daughter why they were born?" I shot back.

"There's no child as rude as you on this planet!" he yelled.

"Like I care!" I said. "There's no father as bad as _you_ on this planet!"

"Everything would've been better if you weren't born!" he said.

"Don't you think I know that?" I said, and I choked back tears. "I lived my whole life watching you and Mom fight every single day. You kept asking me why I was born, and that I should've have even been born. I'm not even good at anything, and my family doesn't support me!"

I wanted to add so many other things, but I just broke down.

"Worthless child," he spat as he stood up. "Why did you learn all these bad things from your mom?"

"From my _mom?_" I said, raising my voice. "I learned it from _you!"_

"Sure you did."

"You're the one who was drinking, cussing, and doing bad things in front of my eyes. I couldn't go a day without hearing someone yelling," I choked.

"Just get out of the house!" he yelled.

"You're always the one saying that to me and my mom. Why don't _you_ leave?" I asked. "I'm not an adult yet, so I technically can't. You'll be held responsible."

"I'll send you to an orphanage," he threatened. "Or you can go to your _other_ family. They'll just be wondering when the heck you'll be leaving."

The struck too close to home. I had told myself that I was worthless and that nobody needed me around. My mom's side of the family seemed to love and care for me, but were they just waiting for me to leave?

"I still have my mom," I said. "She's a guardian."

He stood up, probably knowing that he lost the argument. "You think your mom actually cares for you?"

He left, and I stared out the door.

I probably stayed that for a long time, because I heard my dad going into his room to bed.

From below, I heard my mom talking to Izzy. "She doesn't mean it. Just try to understand and go slow."

"But she's so impossible," Izzy said quietly.

I got up snuck down the stairs, so I can hear.

"She's been through a lot," my mom said. "She's right in a way. You don't want to know what happened."

"Tell me!" she begged.

"Maybe another time," my mom said. "I want to get to know her some more too, but she won't allow anyone to. Only her friends know."

"I think she hates me," she sniffed.

_Yes, I do,_ I thought.

My mom sighed, as if they've been through this countless times. "I don't know why. Maybe she's just jealous of you. You're special, you know that?"

I rolled my eyes and went back to my room. Of course, Isabelle, the special one. The popular one. The loved one.

I dumped my things out of my backpack and placed them in piles on my desk. I got out some clothes and threw them in. I grabbed my toothbrush and a few other crucial things, like my huge pencil case.

I just shoved backpack under the bed when Izzy came in. "Hey."

I didn't reply.

"Giving me the silent treatment now?" she sneered.

I shrugged.

"Well, I'm going to sleep, so I'm gonna turn off the lights in five," she said, and went to the restroom.

Great. Now I had to wait for everyone to fall asleep. I should've just gone with Le. I was stupid.

* * *

I opened my eyes. Were they asleep yet?

I let my eyes adjust to the dark. My dad was snoring in the other room and Izzy was muttering in her sleep… something about chocolate cake. The lights were off which meant that my mom was asleep too.

I got out of bed and stuffed some pillows under the blanket. It was an old trick, but I doubted that they will notice. I mean, they didn't even notice that I went to bed in my jeans.

I grabbed my backpack from below my bed and carefully opened the door. I winced when the door creaked. Someone really needed to oil the door.

I closed the door behind me and crept downstairs, cursing myself every time the stairs creaked. I walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water, and put on my shoes by the door.

A smile formed on my face as I left.

"Have a nice life," I smirked, and closed the door.

I started walking to the hiding place, and the air started to turn cold again. Why the heck was it so cold?

The moon lit the sidewalk, but I couldn't help but be shiver. No one would come jumping out, right?

I walked past my school, and paused. I had a bad feeling about this place, but I felt like I had to go in there. I shook my head. It was probably nothing. I continued on my way to the hiding place.

Le was already there. He didn't have any pants of shoes on which revealed the fact that yes, he was a satyr.

"Why does your family take forever to fall asleep?" Le complained. "I was here for three hours!"

"Sorry," I said. "I kinda had another fight with my family."

"I know," he said. He must've saw my confused look, because he said, "Empathy link," which didn't explain much.

"Right," I said. "What now?"

"Here," he said. "I went back to the school and got this for you."

He handed me a red folder with my name, _Christine Vang,_ written on top of it in bold letters.

"Isn't this the folder that Mr. Greene was writing in?" I asked.

He nodded. "Check it out if you want, but we need to leave."

"Um, about that," I said. I told him about the weird feeling that I had when passing the school.

He nodded. "Then we'd better check it out."

"Sorry?"

"We need to check it out," he said slowly, as if I was a kid. "You're a demigod. Learn to trust your instincts."

"Right, my instincts," I said, rolling my eyes.

He dragged me back to school while I tried to take a look at the folder.

_Demigod status: Confirmed_

_Descended from: UNKNOWN_

_Fatal flaw: UNKNOWN_

_Last update: Recently identified; new recruit_

There were some other notes about my family, behavior, and my strengths and weaknesses. I couldn't make out the rest because it was all torn and wet.

"It's like a stalker's file," I frowned.

"I wouldn't put it that way, but sure," Le shrugged.

"What's a fatal flaw?" I asked. "A flaw that's fatal?"

Le laughed. "Every hero has a flaw. It's almost impossible to be fixed. Some heroes know their own flaw, but some don't. Their flaw can be the death of them."

"Ah, that's nice," I said. "But what do they mean by _new recruit?"_

"Dunno," he said. "We'll have to climb over the fence. You ready?"

I groaned. The school gates were closed, and it was the wire kind that crisscrossed making little squares.

"Or we can climb that tree and jump in, but you have that bad elbow," he said. "That your sister also hit with a pillow."

I flinched. "I'll have to use my elbow anyway. I'll climb the tree. Just give me a boost up."

But to be honest? I didn't know how to climb a tree. Or a fence. I just didn't want to admit it.

Le helped me onto the first sturdy branch. I kept my hands on the trunk and put my foot on the next branch. I put my weight against it, but it didn't snap. I decided it was safe, and moved up. I kept repeating that until I was almost near the height of the fence.

I put my foot on a knot, but I slipped.

"Christine!" Le yelled.

I fell, but grabbed the top of the fence, ignoring the pain in my hand and elbow. I hoisted myself up and jumped over.

"Great! Now can you open the gate for me?" Le said.

"You didn't climb," I said.

"I have _hooves!"_

I grumbled and picked the lock with one of Izzy's bobby pins that I always kept around with me. I pushed the gate open.

"Thanks," he said.

I nodded, and closed the gate again. "Where do we go?"

"Um, Chris, you might want to look behind you," Le said.

"Don't call me that," I said, but turned around. I screamed.

There was a strange humanoid creature with no flesh. Any remaining flesh it had was rotting and falling apart. You could literally see their bones.

"Oh my god," I squeaked.

It moved toward me slowly like a zombie. A zombie that was really starved, maybe.

I grabbed my backpack and swung it at the zombie. It somehow grabbed it and started eating it.

"Ew!" I screamed.

Le got out some strange looking pipes and tossed an apple in the air. It started floating around the zombie's head, and it went nuts trying to get it. The apple flew off into another direction, and the zombie ran off.

"What was that?" I asked.

"_Fames,"_ Le said. "It's not a good sign that they're here. They usually reside in the Underworld."

"Well, the usual doesn't seem to apply now," I said. "Did you bring a flashlight this time?"

"Yes I did, madam," he said, doing a mock bow.

"Lead the way," I smirked.

He led me around the halls, and the occasional _fames_ popped out from nowhere. Whenever that happened, Le did his floating apple trick, which worked all the time. Just one problem—we were running out of apples.

The _fames_ at first kept scaring me, but I guess I couldn't get any more scared after that.

"They look starved," I said, as Le pulled out another apple.

"They are," he said. "They're the personification of hunger."

I was glad I didn't eat dinner that night.

* * *

"Where the heck are we supposed to go?" I said. We had walked around the school at least three times.

"I don't know, but I'm running out of apples," Le said. "We'll have to fight them."

"But we don't have weapons," I said.

"Exactly," he said. "Which is why we need to find the reason why we came here and leave."

"Well, we already know that," I said. "You told me to trust my instincts and dragged us here."

He scoffed and went to the music hall. I screamed again when he opened the hallway door.

There was a ghost of an old man in rags. Maybe it doesn't seem that scary to you, but I was absolutely terrified of ghosts.

"Hold your breath!" Le said and pushed me to the ground.

I blocked my nose and mouth as the ghost hovered around us. Le stood up and made a three fingered gesture. He directed it toward the ghost and it disappeared.

"Come on, now," he said. "You didn't breathe right?"

"Yeah."

He sighed in relief. "Good. That was an Ephesian Plague Phantom. It's pretty self-explanatory."

He made me pick open the lock to the band room, and we walked in. I felt bad that I didn't get to say good-bye to my band teacher. She was really nice.

The shelves started shaking, and instruments started to fall. Some of the cases broke, spilling out the instruments. I winced.

"Le, watch out!" I said, and pushed him out of the way as a tuba sailed over his head.

The instruments started flying all over the place with the music. I could see faint outlines of ghosts flying with them and dropping them. My heartbeat quickened.

"Thanks," he breathed.

We dodged a few more clarinets and a snare drum.

"Look, up there," I said. I pointed to a lady on top of the cabinets with her back towards us. She was wearing a white dress and had long black hair like mine, just more ragged. "I think she's controlling the ghosts."

"The ghosts?" Le asked, and looked around. "Yeah. You're right."

"I'll go up there," I said. "Can you try to protect me from getting pummeled?"

Le nodded. "I'll do my best."

I ran to the other side of the room, dodging a vibraphone that was rolling down the classroom. All the instruments were off the shelves which made things easier for me.

I hoisted myself up onto the first shelf. I struggled to keep my balance as I dodged a flute. I grunted and climbed onto the next one. I was aware of Le below me blowing his pipes and causing rocks to fly out and deflect some of the instruments. I felt bad for whoever would be playing them next.

I kept climbing and reached the top. I was panting heavily even though I only climbed like four shelves.

"So you've made it," the lady hissed. She turned around and faced me. I wanted to scream, but my mouth wouldn't work.

Half of her was dried like a mummy and the other half was a pale white. Her eyes bore through me as if looking through my soul.

"You have no ghosts," she said irritated. "No death yet. I might as well kill you since you're here."

She approached me, and I took a step back. The instruments were still flying around, but they started to circle around us to see the show.

She opened her palm, and a ball of ghostly fire appeared. She threw it at me, but I ducked and it flew over my head. She growled and formed another sphere in her palm, this time a mix of white and gray. She lobbed it at me, but a poor ghost accidently flew in front of me and absorbed the shot.

"Stupid ghost," she snapped, and made a fist. The ghost flew into her palm and disappeared.

"Chris, watch out!" Le said from below.

I was near the edge of the cabinet. I would fall soon, and I didn't think I would have the energy or luck to dodge any more. I looked at the ghosts, hoping for an idea.

The instruments… I reached for a flute, not sure if my plan would work, but it was worth a try.

I snatched one from a ghost, and slashed through it. Somehow the flute made contact with the ghost and it disappeared.

The lady raised her arms and started making a huge black sphere.

No time. I put the flute to my lips and blew the highest note I knew. The shrill sound echoed throughout the classroom, and the lady covered her ears.

Using that I charged at her with the flute and slashed at her, but she simply disappeared into smoke. The ghosts disappeared with her.

My legs collapsed under me.

"Chris, you okay?" Le asked.

"Yeah," I said shakily.

"Hurry up and come down!" he said. "You might attract more monsters."

I nodded, forgetting that he couldn't see me. I was about to climb down when I saw a book in the place where the lady was. It was thick and dusty, but looked important. I put it in my backpack and climbed down.

"Nice job," he said. "Are you really okay?"

"I-I think so," I said. "I'm just really tired. I didn't get any sleep."

"You're right. There's this place where we might be able to stay the night," he said. "You up for it?"

"Definitely," I said.

Le grinned. "Let's get a move on then. It's not too far from here."


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry if the beginning is a bit disturbing. I'm thinking of rating T maybe.**

* * *

"That was awful," I remarked as we walked along the streets. My clothes were dirty and I had a few cuts. I was as tired as heck.

"How was it awful? We got out in one piece," Le said. "Unless you were talking about the instruments."

I shook my head. "It's just so _stupid!_ I mean, I ran that creepy ghost lady with a _flute._ A flute!"

"I think you're really tired," Le said, patting my shoulder. "Tell me about that lady again? Like explain how she looked like."

"She was really pale on one side like a vampire victim," I said. "And the other half was dry and dark, like a mummy."

His face paled. "Chris, you met Melinoe. That's not good."

"That goddess of ghosts?" I said. I stumbled, and Le steadied me.

"You know, I find it funny that you can't identify them when you see them, but you're able to when you hear their name," he said.

"Har har," I said, rolling my eyes. "So where is this place we're going to be staying at?"

"Here," he said, and stopped at a really loud bar that said _Cy's Bar_ in bright neon letters.

"Um, are you sure this is the right place?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Come on."

He dragged me inside, and I felt like my eardrums would burst.

There was booming music playing and drunk couples doing… well, you don't want to know. There were drunk guys trying to hook up with girls and it was mortifying.

"What the heck, Le!" I said. "This place is… weird…"

"I know," he said. "But the place that I want to go is in the back."

We wove around everybody, and I was disgusted to see kids my age here too. A guy swooned on me and I kicked him away. I could've sworn I saw some monsters too.

There was a big room in the back like a lobby. The deafening screams melted away.

"Welcome," the doorman grinned. "Nice to meet you. I'm Cy." He looked at Le and his grin broke out even wider. "Hey, Lesvos! Long time, no see!"

"It's Le," he said. "We'd like a room please."

Cy waggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"Not that way!" Le cried. "I have a girlfriend back at camp, thank you!"

So Le had a girlfriend? That was surprising. He didn't really seem like the type to be in a relationship. I assumed that his girlfriend was probably a nymph.

"I know, I'm just joking around!" he said loftily, but I didn't lower my mental guard. "Demigod business."

"Yeah," he said. "So can we have a room?"

"Have you forgotten how things work around here already?" Cy said.

"No. Just asking permission," Le said. "You can get quite temperamental."

Cy chuckled. "I won't deny that." He walked around his desk, and I gasped when I saw his horse body. "Go ahead, take whatever room you want."

"Thanks," Le said. "How much will it be?"

Cy nodded. "Don't worry about the fees, Le! We've changed things up here a bit! You find your own room, and if you get killed, we won't be responsible for it. And ah, we have some nasty guests here." He wrinkled his nose. "But I don't really remember who stays here and who leaves. Too bothersome."

I frowned. Something about him didn't seem right. "How will we know which room to go to?"

"That's completely your choice!" he said, spreading his arms. "If there's one of those nasty guests in there, oh well! Too bad for you." His eyes twinkled. "But what's life without a little bit of fun?"

Fun? He called this _fun? _A risk of getting killed from finding a room?

I was about to go start a rant, but Le tugged my arm. "Thanks. We'll be going now."

"Well, since you're with Le, I'll give you a little hint," he said. "Look for the room with a faded black door. Good luck!"

He waved and went back to his desk. Le led me up the stairs.

"Who is he?" I asked. "Like really. And how do you know him?"

"Cy?" he asked. "Well, his full name his Cyllarus."

"Isn't he that centaur that married Hylonome?" I said.

"Well, that's another Cyllarus," Le said. "This one is the one that married Perithos, but got drunk on wine during the wedding and started killing the guests."

I gulped. "Are you sure this is safe?"

"Nope," he said. "But as long as you keep that guy away from alcohol, we're good."

We looked at a floor, but couldn't find the door that Cy was talking about. We went up another floor.

"Wait," I said. "Why is he here then? Shouldn't he be dead?"

Le shrugged. "The Doors of Death are open." He blushed when he saw my expression. "I don't know the whole concept, but I think that dead beings can come back to the mortal world. But Cy's been here for some time. All monsters reincarnate after some time, so it would have happened even without the Doors of Death."

"Ah," I said, trying to wrap my head around that fact. "I see."

We walked around the floor, and there were a few open doors, but they were occupied. Some of them were regular people that were wiped out from the bar; some were monsters like harpies and Cyclopes. The others, I didn't know.

"Here," Le said, pointing at a faded door. "Looks like the one that Cy was talking about."

"Do we go in?" I asked. I couldn't help it as a yawn escaped from my mouth.

"Yeah," he said and carefully pushed open the door.

The room was pretty clean, but at least it was empty. On the way here, we had accidentally went into a different room that a harpy was occupying. Long story short, we had to run away with a bunch of scratches everywhere.

There was one bed, and a kitchen, but it was dark. I flicked on the lights, but it didn't help much.

"Sleep," Le said. "It'll help. We'll be leaving early tomorrow."

"What time?" I asked, going into the restroom to do my nightly routine.

"At the latest eight in the morning," Le answered.

I quickly washed up and passed out on the bed. Today had been a long day.

* * *

I had a strange dream that night.

I was in darkness, and I couldn't see anything. The dark started closing in, and I started hyperventilating.

"So this is the new hero," a voice said. It sounded airy, but soft and cold at the same time. "Interesting."

I shivered. I didn't like the fact that this thing was somewhere around me that I couldn't see.

"You'll never find your way to camp, young demigod," the voice said. I could recognize it as a she now. "Not if I can help it."

She laughed and her presence disappeared.

_"Two campers, a Hunter, and an Amazon shall join,"_ an eerie voice said, but it was different from the other voice. This one was a male.

I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the air around me ripple.

"Do not feel threatened by my presence, young demigod," he said. "You'll be hearing from me a lot more often, but only in dreams. That is my realm after all. Now wake."

I flinched and woke up. It was like when you feel like you're falling, and you just jerk awake from your sleep. I hated that feeling.

"Le?" I said, rubbing my eyes,

"Yeah, down here," Le said getting off the floor. "Get ready, we're leaving soon."

"Already?" I yawned, making my way over to the restroom.

"Yeah, we're in big trouble," he said. "Hurry!"

He shoved me in the restroom, and I quickly got ready. I changed into a baggy short-sleeved shirt and jeans and rushed outside.

I gasped. "Le!"

Le looked awful. I couldn't believe that I didn't notice it before. His goat fur was caked with blood and he had scratches on his face.

"What happened?" I asked.

"No time!" he said. "The guests are in a frenzy right now, especially Cy. We _have_ to leave."

I picked up the book from yesterday, or today more like it, upset that I didn't get to find out its purpose. I pushed the door open and ran down the hall.

Down at the lobby, things were chaos. Cy was whooping around with a whip whipping random guests who were wailing in pain. Unfortunately all the guests were drunk too and were trying to kill each other.

"Oh, Le! Where are you going?" Cy said.

Le tried to drag me, but I was frozen in place. This scene was all too familiar. Back at home when my dad got drunk, he got violent towards me and my mom… only he didn't use a whip. He just used at whatever he had in hand.

"Christine! Come on!" Le said.

I was terrified. My feet wouldn't move. Cy was trotting towards us, swaying.

Le pulled out his pipes and played a quick song. The song filled my head, filling me with joy and positivity. Everything seemed good for that moment except for well, everything.

I snapped out of my trance and let Le pull me along.

Cy kept tripping over his drunk guests who were all thirsty for blood.

"We have to kill him," Le said as we entered the now-empty bar.

"What?" I said. "But—"

"I'm serious," Le said. "In the myths, he was killed during the riot. We have to kill him again."

"But how?" I asked. "Tell me. Please tell me that there's something that we can do something about."

"I'm sorry," Le said. "But I can't help you out on this one. I don't know either."

Cy charged in the bar covered in blood. He whooped.

A strong surge of anger filled me for some reason. "Le, go outside. I'll take care of this."

"Yes, Le," Cy said. "She'll take care of this."

"I'll be fine," I reassured.

I pushed him out of the way as Cy charged. He slashed at me with the whip, but I quickly moved to the side and it cracked the floor next to me. I noticed that the other monsters were filing in.

A harpy flew at Cy and pecked his eyes. He swatted her away and whipped her. She disintegrated. He did the same with an innocent Cyclops baby.

"Stop!" I yelled, and I realized that it was a bad idea.

Cy gave me a drunken grin. "You want to be the star of the show, eh? You get your wish."

He raced toward me and I backed up. I bumped against the wall. There was nowhere to go. He was five yards away from me. Ten feet. He just kept coming closer, and I had no weapon.

I blinked, and he was right in front of me, and raised his whip. I screamed, and raised my book, the only thing I had. Time slowed. There was a bright flash, and the book opened and flipped their pages.

I grabbed hold of the book and tried to see through the flash. On the page was a picture and description of a dagger. The flash faded and a dagger appeared out of nowhere on the pages. Time resumed.

I swiftly grabbed the dagger and dropped the book. I stabbed at Cy without looking in one smooth motion. There was a painful wail, and I was showered by dust. When I opened my eyes, there was a single hoof in the place of Cy.

I picked up the hoof and the book, and looked at the crowd. They stared at me, but I knew it wouldn't be long before they attacked me. I turned and made a beeline for the exit.

"Le!" I yelled as I ran.

"Here!" he said. "We need to leave Los Angeles quickly. It's dangerous."

"Well, no duh," I said.

"Really," he said. "The entrance to the Underworld is here too. We should leave here as soon as possible."

"Care to find us a ride then?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. "I tried asking for reinforcements, but they're too busy. It might be a while before we find any way of travel."

"All right then," I said. "Then just out of LA is the plan?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "And then find a way to go across the country to New York."

I grinned. "Sounds like an impossible plan."


	5. Chapter 5

**Hallowtail- Thank you so much for reviewing and being the first follower! Thanks for your review. ^^**

* * *

We stopped by a non-monster-infested pancake house and had some breakfast. Le could really eat! He wolfed down at least twenty pancakes in three minutes.

"Are you gonna finish that?" he said motioning to my blueberry pancakes.

"Nah, I'm full," I said. "And I kinda lost my appetite."

He chuckled. "I don't blame you."

He ate mine too. He stifled a burp.

"Hey," he grinned. "You want to stop by Starbucks?"

So we ended stopping by for some coffee for Le and tea for me.

"Aren't you full?" I said, shaking my head.

"Kind of," he said. "We should try to get some distance now though. I heard that there's a Greyhound station a few miles off."

"And we're going to walk that," I said.

"I wouldn't mind, but you might not find it so pleasant," he laughed.

"Very," I sighed. "But what can I do?"

Le led the way and I padded along. I was trying to figure how the book worked. It had a black cover etched with gold in intricate designs. I opened the book to a random page of a sword. A light emanated from the book a sword appeared on the pages.

"Cool," Le said. "Did you get the hand of it yet?"

"I think," I said. "Won't the mortals see that I have a sword right now?"

He shook his head. "The Mist shields mythological things from the mortal world, so they might see it as a walking stick or something."

I rolled my eyes. "And you? Your goat legs?"

He shrugged. "Hopefully they'll see it as sweats."

"You sir, have a horrible sense of fashion," I laughed.

"Hypocrite," he said.

I stuck my tongue out at him. I didn't care about how I looked at all and just grabbed the first things I saw in my closet. So yes, there was that one time when I wore a button-up shirt with a coat on top.

Le cleared his throat. "So how was your stay at the hotel room?"

"Weird," I said. "I had a weird dream."

Le nodded. "Perfectly normal for demigods. What was it about?"

I told him everything, from the two voices to that weird line.

"I have no idea what it means," he said shaking his head. His wild curls whipped around.

"Did you have any dreams?" I asked.

Le made a face. "More of an omen kind of thing really."

"So what's so bad about it?" I asked.

"It totally throws us off course," he said. "We're supposed to go to New York as quickly as possible, but the voice said to go to Texas."

"Texas," I said flatly. "Like the one that borders Mexico?"

"Well, how many other Texases do you know?" he shrugged. "And, uh, can you like calm down a bit? It's just that… well, the empathy link lets me able to feel your emotions." His face flushed.

"Oh. Sorry," I said. "I just hate that place. Did they specify what city?"

"Austin," he said, and felt my heart sink even more.

"Oh," I said again. "Do you know who told you to go to Austin?"

He shook his head. "Sounded like a female, but I think she was different from the one you talked about."

"So do we go to New York or Austin?" I asked, hoping for the latter.

"Austin," he said without any hesitation. "We can't ignore summons from a supreme being."

"And how do you know it's from a supreme being?" I questioned.

"Because that room we stayed in has a charm placed by Morpheus," he said. "You know who that is, right?"

"The god of dreams, yes," I said. "Go on."

"So anyone who stays in that room gets guidance from Morpheus or other gods," Le said. "Sometimes good, sometimes bad."

"But why Austin of all places?" I groaned. "Why couldn't it be like, El Paso or something?"

Le shrugged. "I don't know why you don't like that place, but it's a must. We'll ride a bus to the airport and think about the tickets later."

I gave him a skeptical look. "If you think that I'm a daughter of Hermes, I can assure you hundred percent that I am not, though it'd be reassuring if the dad that I have now wasn't my real dad."

Le sighed. "Fine then. We'll have to pray to Hermes, though I doubt it'll help."

"And how?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"It's complicated," Le said. "_Really_ complicated. I'll explain once we get on the bus."

It took us almost an hour to get there, and things went downhill from there.

I looked around at the Greyhound station. I came here a few times with my mom, but I never been inside it… needless to say, it was a disappointment. Then again, this was LA. What was something without a whole bunch of trash?

You wouldn't guess what I stepped in.

"Ew, what the heck is this?" I yelled, lifting my foot.

"Gross," Le said, waving his hand in front of his nose. "Smells like hellhound poop."

As if on cue, there was a loud bark. I groaned.

"Tell me that isn't a hellhound," I said.

"I'd love to," Le said. "But I'd be lying."

The wall crumbled, sending people screaming everywhere. Le pulled me aside as a huge chunk of debris landed right where I was standing a moment before.

"Thanks," I said.

Le nodded. "Get ready."

I got out the book and flipped to the page about swords. A three foot long blade appeared on top of the pages. It had a hilt wrapped in leather. I held it in my hand. It was light enough for an inexperienced girl like me to hold and carry, which I was glad for.

Then the dog showed itself. It was the size of a rhino, but it made more significant damage than a rhino. It had black fur and dark red eyes that pierced through my soul.

"Um…" I said, lowering my sword. "What do I do?"

"Really, Christine? Really?" Le shrieked, as he almost got clawed to death. "Kill it!"

"But…"

The sword felt awkward in my hands now that I was supposed to attack. I might be able to wield it, but it wouldn't do any good without any training.

"Shoo, shoo!" Le said, making flapping his hands.

I dropped my book and backpack on the ground and raced after the hellhound.

The hellhound turned and bared its teeth. I faltered, and it jumped at me. I raised the sword, but I couldn't reach it, which was a major blow to my pride. Fortunately, the hellhound hit face-first into a mound of fertilizer.

"Nice!" Le said with a crazy grin on his face.

I raised my sword, but the hellhound snapped at me. The sword flew out of my hand and disappeared with a _poof!_

"Um, Le?" I said, as I moved back. The hellhound inched forward, probably just toying with me, seeing how far I would go before I went insane. "Do you know any songs that can tame animals?"

His eyes brightened. "I think I do! Just give me a second."

I kept moving back, noticing the people were crowding around us now. What would they see? A rhino threatening a dirty teen? A teenager deathly afraid of a pink poodle?

The hellhound clawed at me, but I ducked under its swipe and it clawed some other innocent mortals. The others got the message and started heading back to their cars.

"Ah, I remember!" Le said, and played a song on his pipes.

The hellhound swooned and started swaying back and forth. I moved out of the way just in case in fell on top of me, and gathered up my belongings. When the song stopped, the hellhound was much calmer and was behaving like a normal dog. Or as normal a dog can be if it was a hellhound.

"I'm naming you Steve," Le said, petting its flank. "Hop on."

"Is it safe?" I asked.

Steve knelt, and Le climbed on. "Hey, what's the worst thing that can happen?"

"From what I've seen so far, a lot," I said, but accepted his hand and climbed on. "What are we doing exactly?"

"Shadow-travel," he answered. "Close your eyes, you might not like it."

I gave him a questioning look.

"It's going to be dark."

I shut my eyes and grabbed onto Le.

"Okay, Steve. Take us to Austin," Le said, and Steve barked. I didn't see what happened next, but I felt Steve jump into something.

After that, it was cold. But the cold didn't bother me. In fact, it was kind of pleasant which was strange since I was really sensitive to temperature changes. My head bounced around as Steve ran.

It wasn't until Le said, "You can open your eyes now," when I felt free.

Steve stumbled, and we slid off. I bumped into Le.

"Sorry," I muttered, grabbing my head.

"It's fine," he said. "Steve's going to be tired for some time. Shadow-travel works best at night, and its noon right now."

The sun was blazing hot. I looked around, and yes, we were in Austin. I wasn't psyched.

"Where do we need to go?" I asked.

There was a big _thump_ and I jumped. It turned out to be Steve passing out. Everybody who thought they were overweight should look at this guy. Geez.

"There's an old abandoned library around here that's pretty famous," Le said. "Well, not _famous,_ but some demigods that lived around this area said that they went to go hang out there, but no mortal ever dared to go in there.

"Well, that's nice," I said. "Is that library the one over there?"

I pointed to the pointed roof that was ripping apart.

Le nodded. "Yup."

The library was huge. It looked like an old fashioned castle which made it pop from its surroundings. It was all torn up, and looked like a haunted house.

I looked around and saw a familiar looking house across the street. My blood turned cold.

"So we have to climb over the fence," Le said. "Chris? You listening?"

"Yeah," I said. "Is that the only option?"

"We can go in directly, but it'll be dark," he said.

"Better than climbing an iron fence in the sun," I said. I saw the door to the house open, and two people coming out. "Le, quick."

"What?"

"In the library. Go!" I shoved him aside and lunged for the door. I slammed the door once Le ran in.

"What was that for?" he demanded.

"Later," I said, hoping that they didn't see me.

Le seemed to sense my displeasure and sighed. "We need to look for a statue."

"A statue," I said. "Why would this library have a statue?"

"Well, the dream said to look for a statue.," he shrugged. "Plus, the library was named after a Greek deity

I rolled my eyes. "Lead the way. I hate the dark."

Le chuckled. "Yes, I know. I still have that bruise from when your punched me last time."

My face heated up. "I told you I was sorry! I thought we were going to forget about that!"

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p.' "There most likely won't be any monsters here. They're scared of this place, though a few of the brave and foolish ones come here."

"Let's hope they don't come then," I said.

I felt the library getting darker and tense. I reached out for Le and grabbed his arm.

"Just a little farther," he assured. "It's in the back. We're over halfway there."

Broken shelves started to become more apparent, and I had to be careful not to trip over the wood or books.

I stopped to put my book in my backpack do it wouldn't get mixed up with the others if I happened to drop it.

"We're here," Le said, as we reached a bigger room.

"What are we looking at exactly?" I asked.

"Right. Sorry," Le said, and rushed to pull back the curtains.

The sunlight shined in, illuminating the statue in the center.

"Feast your eyes at the statue of Mnemosyne," he grinned.


	6. Chapter 6

"Sorry," I said. "_Nemo Sign?"_

Le huffed. "No. _Mnemosyne."_

"Like as in the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne?" I said, saying the name carefully. I saw her name in a lot of texts, but I had never known how to pronounce it.

The statue reached almost all the way to the ceiling. She had long robes that (thankfully) covered all of her body. She had a big book in her hands, smiling serenely.

"Yes," a voice said. "That's me."

There was a bright light from the window, and I averted my eyes. When I looked back, there was a lady that looked like the statue, only more colorful.

"Lady Mnemosyne," Le bowed. I decided it would be the safest for me to bow.

"Oh, don't bow," she said, waving her hand. "If it keeps going on like this, at least fifty percent of my memory will be of people bowing to me."

She met my eyes. She had long dark hair that was braided into a Greek up do and deep brown eyes which were kind of unnerving.

"Yes, I'm Mnemosyne," she said. "Not Nemo Sign. I'm not a fan of that movie." She looked at the base of her statue where someone had graffitied _AKA NEMO SIGN_ with orange spray paint.

"Lady Mnemosyne," Le said, "were you the one who told me to come here?"

She smiled brightly. "Yes, that was me. I'm glad you came. You came much quicker than I thought. I still remember that hero…" She shook her head. "Sorry. I won't bore you with those. As the goddess of memory, or Titaness if you must, I can't forget anything. It's quite irritating. I still remember those horrible lines from this one movie, and I can't get it out of my head."

I suppressed a smile.

"So why did you tell us to come here?" Le asked.

"Oh, you know," Mnemosyne said. "I'm really sorry that I delayed you on your way to New York, but I thought it was important. As you know, the gods cannot help you. Or most of them, in any case.

"So I came to help. Gods not claiming their children can cause quite a lot of trouble," she said, wrinkling her nose. "So I'm here to give you a little hint. Christine, come here."

"Me?" I said, a bit surprised that she knew my name.

"Yes," she said. "Now kneel by the statue and close your eyes. I'm going to give you a memory."

I hesitated, right before kneeling.

"Don't worry," Mnemosyne said. "I won't give you any harmful memories. I'm not a cruel goddess, but I can't take away those memories either. Those memories make you who you are right now."

I closed my eyes, and felt Mnemosyne put her hand on my forehead. A warm feeling spread throughout my body, and I felt myself relaxing. A scene flooded in my head.

"So you have a child," my mom said.

They were in our house in the living room. I was about a year old then, playing with my favorite bear pillow pet that was once sky blue, but got washed too often and faded to white.

My dad nodded. "She's a nuisance sometimes, but I feel indebted to her mother."

"You two weren't married?" my mom asked, resting her head on her hands.

He shook his head. "She just gave me her and left."

"Ah."

The memory faded.

I clenched my fists.

"Calm down," Mnemosyne said. "Relax."

Le gave me a worried look.

"So my mom was a goddess," I said.

Mnemosyne nodded. "I have a clear guess on whom. Your mortal parents don't know, so don't go around asking them."

She must've seen my confusion, because she continued, "Your father was heartbroken, or maybe he was just mad. He started drinking more, and he forgot about her."

"Oh."

Mnemosyne nodded. "As one last favor, I'll speed you on your way to New York. I can't guarantee your safety, but you'll arrive at camp if all goes well."

"What about Steve?" Le asked.

"Ah, Le. Always so kindhearted," she sighed. "I'll send him to camp later. Huddle around."

We did what she asked.

"And Christine," Mnemosyne said. "Don't run from your memories. You can never forget them. You have very powerful ones. Running away will do you no good. You can never_ forget_ things. They're just buried in your other things.

"That memory was just brought up to the surface from everything else that was piling up. Memories stay with you forever Christine. Do you really want to live your life in fear of your memories?

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, hold hands."

Le's hand gripped mine and he squeezed it reassuringly. I gave him a small smile. Mnemosyne waved her hand, and the world turned upside down.

* * *

"Oh my gosh. I think I'm gonna throw up," I said, and retched. Luckily, nothing came out.

"Same here," Le said and threw up his pancakes that we had. I shuddered.

"Where are we?" I asked. "It's hot."

"New York," Le replied happily. "Of course it's hot, it's like three."

He was right. I recognized some of the buildings from pictures. I've never been to New York until now, but I always wanted to.

Le got us a cab and told the driver an address.

The driver sighed. "A lot of people seem to be going there lately, but there's nothing there."

"Oh, um, we just really like strawberries," Le said. He gave me a look that said, _I'll explain later._

We drove in silence for a moment until I asked, "Do you even have money?"

"Uh… no?" he said, checking his pockets.

I groaned into my hands. "I didn't bring any money."

"I guess we'll have to trick our way out of this," Le mumbled. "I hate doing this, but it's a last resort."

"We're here," the cabbie announced.

Le snapped his fingers, and I felt a gust of wind. "Thank you sir. You can keep the change."

"Thank you. Have a good day."

"You too."

We got off the cab, and he drove away.

"What was that?" I demanded.

"The Mist," he said. "You'll learn about it later. But in the meantime, welcome to camp!"

The camp didn't look like much at first, with a signpost that said _Delphi's Strawberry Service. Pick your own strawberries please._

Inside, the camp looked amazing.

There were twenty cabins, each with their own different perks. One was covered in barbed wire, and another was pure gold. There was a climbing wall with lava and an archery lane.

"Come on," Le said and took me down to a big blue house.

I saw a few people on the way, but they all looked serious as if they were getting ready to fight a helpless war.

"Who's the new punk?" a voice said, and I turned around.

"Clarisse," Le said, wilting away.

Clarisse was tall and bulky with stringy brown hair. She looked about 17 or 18. She gave me a hard look.

"Chiron isn't here right now," Clarisse said. "I'm taking over the position of camp leader for now."

"Who gave you that position?" Le squeaked.

"Princess did, after she left with those newbies."

"They left already?" he said.

"No duh. Who is she?" she asked.

"Christine Vang. New demigod," he said.

Clarisse nodded. "Okay then. The gods probably won't claim you unless your parent is a minor god. So figure out your parent on your own, but don't make any fibs. Go get cleaned up in the Big House and head over to the arena to start training."

She left, and we headed onto the Big House.

"Why is everyone here so serious?" I asked as Le tossed me a camp shirt.

"I wasn't here for a while, but one of our leaders, Percy, disappeared," Le said. "And during the winter, these three new kids came. Turned out that one of them was a Roman, and we figured out that Percy was at the other Roman camp."

"There's a Roman camp?"

"Well, I guess so. So our other leader, Annabeth—also Percy's girlfriend—left to find the Roman camp with those three demigods to find Percy," Le said. "And Gaea's rising, so we're expecting a huge war anytime soon."

"Oh," I said. "Where should I put my stuff?"

"Take your book out and give me your backpack," he said. "Looks like the Hermes cabin is going to be crowded up again."

I got changed and we left the Big House.

"Hey, Vivi!" Le called. "Can you take Christine to the arena?"

A girl with light brown hair and blue eyes ran up to us. She was around my height, and her hair was braided down the side.

"Sure," she said, and Le trotted off. "You're new right? I'm Vivian Greene, daughter of Apollo. But people call me Vivi. I don't really care which."

I shook her hand. "Christine Vang."

"Sorry, didn't catch that."

"Christine Vang," I said, a bit louder.

She nodded. "Okay. Well, Christine, you have to loosen up."

"Sorry?"

"You need to speak a bit louder too," she muttered. "Anyway, your shoulders are all tensed up. No one's going to attack you here, most likely."

"I'm not tense," I argued.

She smiled. "Really? Feel your shoulders."

I felt my shoulders, and to my surprise, they _were _tense.

"You need to relax," she said. "Keep them loose."

"I _am_ relaxed," I mumbled.

Vivian pursed her lips. "What I think is that you're usually always tense, so your body is always like that. The mind follows the body, and vice versa. So even if your mind wants to relax, your body will stay tense because it's so used to it."

I nodded. "My thera—" I clamped my mouth shut.

"Your therapist?" she questioned. "You go to therapy?"

I nodded, not looking at her.

She shrugged. "Well, you're going to have to loosen up a bit if you want to fight. Catch you later!"

I stood at the edge of the arena feeling awkward and like I shouldn't be here.

"Come in, we're not going to bite," one of the people there said and I came in.

I looked at the person who had said that. He had curly blond hair and gray eyes.

"What's your name?" he asked. I noted the other demigods behind him that looked similar to him.

"Christine," I said.

"I'm Malcolm," he said. "It's Athena's turn for training, but we'll fit you in. All of you, go practice the disarming technique. I'm going to do one-on-one with Christine here."

They grouped into pair of two and started practicing diligently.

"We need to catch you up quickly if you're going to help," Malcolm said. "Do you have your own weapon?"

"Yeah, sort of," I said and showed him the book. I quickly explained how it worked in the least words as possible.

"Let's start with the sword then," he said. He got off a sword from the wall for himself.

I summoned my sword, and looked around a place to put my book.

"Oh, that's a problem," he said. "We'll figure out how to deal with that problem later. You can't fight with a book in one hand."

I grabbed the sword, but Malcolm corrected my grip. The sword felt more comfortable and not as awkward.

"Now you step in with this foot and slash like that," he said. "Yeah, just like that. Keep working on that. I'm going to go see how the others are doing. You can practice that on a dummy."

He pointed over to a set of dummies, and went to go check up on the others. I got one of the dummies and tried the move the Malcolm taught me. It sliced through the dummy easily.

When Malcolm came around, I was already exhausted and my arm was numb.

"Yeah, it's hard for beginners, but you held out longer than I thought," he said. "You can go rest up now. Just have some free time until someone tells you to come back to training."

I nodded and my sword disappeared. I got my book and strolled out the arena. This would be fun.


	7. Chapter 7

**Thank you all so much for reviewing/favoriting/following! It means a lot to me. ^^**

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******I'm sorry if this chapter isn't that good, but I hope you still enjoy it!  
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* * *

"Hey, Christine!" Vivi yelled, as she ran up to me. "Dang, it took me a long time to get your attention."

My face heated up. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she said. "So you have free time now?"

I nodded. "Malcolm told me to go talk to the Hecate cabin about my book."

"Oh," she said. "Well, follow me! Lou's in her cabin right now. She's an expert on magic items."

She led me over to a cabin made of bricks with strange engravings on them. She knocked.

"Lou? You there? It's Vivian," she said.

The door creaked open, and a girl with long dark hair and green eyes answered the door. "Hey, Vivian! Come in."

Vivian motioned for me to go first, and I stepped in nervously.

"Who's your new friend?" Lou asked. She lit the torches with green balls of fire from her palms to light up the room.

"This is Christine," Vivi said. "Christine, this is Lou. She's a high-schooler, but she's cool unlike some others in this camp." She made a face at that.

Lou laughed. "Ah, yeah. Tanaka can be _very_ irritating."

"She has a pretty face though," Vivi said. "Anyway, Christine wanted you to see her magic item."

She nudged me and I straightened. I gave Lou the book.

"Oh, this is fun," she said. She inspected it from all angled and opened the book a few times to random pages. She closed her eyes and places her palm over the book.

"Okay," she said, handing me back my book. "So this book can transform into any book that you want, but the cover will stay the same. But at default, it's that book that talks about Greek and Roman stuff. You can summon anything else from different books if you can imagine it. It's easier if there's a picture.

"And for the last part, the book returns to your backpack if it ever happens to get lost," she concluded.

"So fiction works are dangerous if you have a really imaginative mind," Vivi said. "Well, if you're reading from this book anyway."

Lou smiled. "But those things disappear when you don't need them. I'm guessing you're responsible enough to not cause trouble with this."

I nodded.

"Well, nice seeing you Lou!" Vivi said. "And Will said that he wants that potion that you're working on so he can test it." She coughed. "On the Stolls."

"I'll stop by his cabin later than," she smirked. "I have to go to archery. See you."

We left the cabin and went our separate ways.

"I'm guessing you're not the type to talk much?" Vivi said as we walked by the lake.

I nodded.

Vivi blew her hair out of her face. "Well, I'm trying to be your friend, so try talking a bit. Or not a bit. A _lot._"

I smiled. I liked her way of talking, it was straightforward, but it didn't really hurt me. "Fine."

Vivian whooped. "Yes! Anyway, I'll give you a brief rundown of camp, like who to avoid and who's cool and whatnot.

She pointed to cabin 6. "That's the Athena cabin. The head counselor's Annabeth Chase, but she's off on that quest, so Malcolm's taking over for now. But Annabeth is really cool and helpful. She's dating Percy Jackson, head of the Poseidon cabin…."

She went on explaining every cabin and most of the important people. The only person she advised me to avoid was Drew Tanaka.

"And maybe the Stoll brothers, but that's only because they'll prank you. But they're friendly in their own way," Vivi said. "Most of the older campers treat us as equals, probably because they've been in our place before.

"For those our age, I'm guessing you're 14?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Okay! Well, um, in my cabin, there's me. There are also a few others around our age, but they're just big show-offs. There's Lea Marshall, this girl from Aphrodite. In the Hypnos cabin, there's this guy named Hansel—"

"You like him, don't you?" I said.

Her face flushed. "No, I don't!"

"Okay, I know I'm really dense on this stuff, but I can tell that much," I said.

She stuck her tongue at me. "Fine, I do. But don't tell anyone."

"It's not a bad thing," I said.

"Yeah, but," she sighed, "people think of the Hypnos cabin as a joke. If they find out that I have a crush on someone in the Hypnos cabin, I'm afraid that they might think I'm weird too."

"They're not going to hate you all of a sudden," I said. I didn't really know what else to say. I didn't know how to comfort people especially on this stuff.

"Maybe," she said. "So do you like anybody?"

I frowned at her sudden change of subject. I shook my head, feeling awkward talking about these things.

"That's a pity," Vivi sighed. "But then again, you just came. You might meet some new people. But don't _ever_ fall for my brothers."

I laughed. "Why?"

"I've been at camp for maybe three years now, and I know them enough that they're just going to be marveling at how good looking they are," she smirked.

"Vivi! Stop slacking off! It's time for archery," a boy with blond hair yelled. "Bring that new girl too. We can't have anyone falling behind!"

Vivi rolled her eyes. "Coming! Chris, come on."

"You're going to call me Chris now too?" I sighed.

"Sure, why not?" she said cheerfully and ran for the archery lane.

"Vivian, you're like five minutes late," the guy chided.

"When were demigods ever good at keeping time and deadlines?" Vivi grinned. "Sorry."

The guy rolled his eyes. "I'm Will by the way. Will Solace. We've already started, so get a bow and all that. Come to the end of the lane."

I opened my book and quickly turned the pages for a bow and arrow. I quickly summoned it and rushed to the end of the lane.

"Have you done archery before?" Will asked.

"Once at this camp," I admitted. I didn't bother telling him that I didn't even get an arrow near the target.

"So you know how to hold a bow?" he asked.

I shrugged and held up the bow, using my best guess to remember where they went.

"Yeah, like that," he nodded. "Now nock an arrow."

I tried nocking an arrow, but it kept falling. I resisted the urge to sigh. This was hopeless.

"Hold it with your index finger until you're going to shoot," Will advised.

I did so, and it stayed in place.

"Now aim and pull back," he said. "Let go when you think you're ready."

I tried aiming, and pulled back. Pulling back was the easy part; I just had horrible aim. I let the arrow fly, and it hit the wall above the target. Well, that was to be expected.

"Well," Will sighed, "better than Percy's. I had to have archery with him, and it was a nightmare."

I smiled. "Really?"

"He shot an arrow and it somehow flew backwards," he said. "And I just happened to be walking behind him at that time."

I laughed. "Must've been nice."

Will scoffed. "If you call being in the infirmary for a week _nice._ Try lowering the bow a little bit."

I kept trying and Will patiently gave me advice, but I didn't even hit the target. Not even the rim. I bet even the Aphrodite children were better than me.

"It's okay if you can't do it," Will said an hour later. "Some people aren't made for archery, but they still do great things. Look at Percy for instance."

Percy. I've been hearing that name a lot. I guess that he was pretty popular and many people liked him.

"We're having dinner in about half an hour," Vivi said. "You want to try the climbing wall?"

"I'm gonna fall and break my neck."

She scoffed. "Please. The worst that happened was a person falling in the lava."

"That's bad," I said.

She grinned. "Come on, it'll be fun. Besides, your cabin is over there too, so why not?"

I let her drag me to the climbing wall. It looked scary from up close with real lava pouring out.

"We'll have the hard-course with the earthquake and lava!" Connor said. "C'mon, Travis! Don't be a coward!"

They got on their equipment and started their climb. Everyone stared at them as they swiftly climbed up, avoiding the lava. The wall shook, and Connor slipped, but quickly steadied himself.

"Sons of Hermes, right?" I said.

Vivi nodded. "They're awesome at the climbing wall."

"I guess they need practice since they're the children of the god of thieves."

We watched them reach the top and cheered. They came down, looking smug.

"We beat our record!" Travis said. "High-five."

They high-fived and rejoined the crowd.

"You want to go?" Vivian asked.

I shook my head. Another time maybe, when there weren't many experienced climbers around.

Vivian shrugged and got herself strapped. She started climbing when Travis walked up to me.

"So you're in the Hermes cabin, right?" he asked.

I nodded.

"You're the one that Le saved right?"

I nodded again.

He sighed. "I don't know _why_ they're putting you in the Hermes cabin if they know that your _mom_ is the goddess. Last time I checked, Hermes was a guy."

I laughed, and he grinned.

"Hey," Vivi said. Her shirt was scorched, but she was grinning. "I hope you didn't see that because I fell off that time."

"We didn't," Travis said.

"Good," she exhaled. A conch horn blew, and she cheered. "Yes, dinner!"

She ran off to find her cabin, and we walked over to the mess hall.

"Hermes!" Connor yelled. "File in!"

Over a dozen of demigods rushed in and lined up.

"We're lining up in order of seniority," a boy said sheepishly.

I nodded, getting his point, and went to the back of the line.

"Heroes!" a centaur yelled, pounding his hoof. "We're back here for another good dinner! I hope your training is going well."

There were mutters of displeasure from the group, and the centaur winced.

"That's Chiron," the guy who told me to go the back whispered.

I nodded thinking, _Oh. No duh._

"We'll go back to our regular schedule once the war is over and if this camp is still around," he said. I noticed his choice of words. "And today we have a new demigod, Christine Vang. Welcome her please."

Cue some half-hearted clapping.

"And today is Friday, which means Capture the Flag!" Chiron said, and the crowd cheered a bit louder. "Now, enjoy your meal!"

Everyone got up carrying their plates over to the fire.

"Burnt offerings to the gods," Connor said. "We're supposed to burn part of our best food, but personally, I burn the things that I don't want to eat. Except for breakfast." He added as an afterthought.

I laughed. When it was my turn to burn something in the fire, I threw in the ripest strawberry. I loved strawberries personally, but I wanted to make a good first impression if you could make one. _I don't know what's going on here, but if you're my mom, tell me, or send me a sign. It's okay if you can't though._

I went back to my seat. Everyone started eating and talking, but there was a tense air in the pavilion.

I was about to drink, but realized that my goblet was empty.

"Just say what you want to drink," Travis said. "Non-alcoholic."

Trust me, I didn't want to drink alcohol, especially after seeing my dad when he drank alcohol.

"Water," I said simply, and the glass filled itself. I took a drink.

"Really? Water? Why not soda or anything?" Travis said in disbelief.

"I don't like soda," I laughed.

"You didn't!" another Hermes camper said.

We started joking around, and for once, I felt like I was accepted. I didn't have to worry about being teased or being a loner. I actually felt like I was at home. A _real_ home.


	8. Chapter 8

**This chapter and the next are more gonna be like fillers... I think. Yeah.**

**OneApolloKid- Thanks! She gets claimed in this chapter, but I might have to change it later on (since I'm basing this off of my character in Demigods of Olympus).**

**Kelp-It-Up- I'm in the Pacific Time Zone. California. ^^  
**

**LydiaLuvsPretzels- Thanks so much for your review! I think Christine's parent is similar to almost all other OC's out there, but I thought it was the best fit. It was either that or Hades, but I guessed that people were sick of reading all the child of the Big Three fics, so I went with this other goddess. I always have the next chapter typed up (at least so far), so I update when I write the next chapter... if that makes sense. So like I have up to chapter 9 written up right now when I'm updating this.  
**

**I really don't like the ending when she's supposedly "claimed," so sorry. I was brain dead when I wrote that, and I couldn't find out a better way to write that part.**

***I post updates earlier on my Tumblr. You can find it on my profile. (But I'm not updating _that_ much earlier. Maybe a few minutes while I reply to reviews? But I might post like sneak peeks of the next chapter on there.)**

**I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

The campers stampeded over to the woods.

"So, what are we doing?" I asked over the noise.

"Capture the Flag," Travis grinned. "You can go back to the cabin since you're new, but we don't recommend it."

"It'll be fun!" Connor added. "It's the most fun you can have after the camp went into all serious mode."

"You won't get hurt," Travis reassured.

"Most likely," Chris coughed.

"I'll play," I said.

Connor grinned. "We predicted that. You're going to be guarding the flag."

"Put your armor on first," Travis said.

I summoned the best looking armor under the Stolls' advice, and they helped me put in on.

"This kind is the lighter one, so you should be able to move around somewhat more quickly in these," Connor said. "Of course I know since I'm the smarter one."

"Shut up," Travis said, and punched him. "Anyway, just guard the flag. Don't let them come close! The defense will try to stall them."

"Okay," I said, shifting awkwardly in my armor.

I guess compared to other Greek armor mine was pretty light. It was about the twice the weight of my backpack.

"If it makes you feel any better, we have that girl you were talking to—Vivi, right?—stationed near you," Connor said. "You all set?"

I nodded.

"Let's go!" Travis whooped.

"Blue team, forward!" Malcolm yelled.

The blue team consisted of the Hermes cabin, the Apollo cabin, the Hecate cabin, and the Aphrodite cabin led by the Athena cabin. The red team consisted of the other smaller cabins led by Ares.

"Campers!" Chiron yelled, pounding his rules. "I will be serving as the medic and referee. As always, the rules are simple. If you forgot or are new, there will be no maiming or killing. Failure to follow that rule will lead to severe punishment. The whole forest is a fair game. Dirty tricks are to be expected. Now go!"

The silver flag was set near Zeus's fist. Normally it would be on it, they explained, but after the war, they liked to avoid it as much as possible.

"Don't get side-tracked," Vivi said. She hefted her bow. "But don't worry. I doubt they'll get pass our defenses."

"That'd be good," I agreed.

I stood there for a while in silence, not knowing what to say. There were screams of joy from the other side. I sighed. As much as I wanted to have fun, I wasn't the most athletic person. Whenever we played capture the flag at my school and I was set as flag guard, I just stared into space looking stupid.

Or if I was on defense, I'd chase the other team until they got tired and let someone else take them to jail.

I started pacing around, getting used to the armor.

Vivi sighed and sat down. "I have to say, they're taking a really long time today. Seriously. I feel like I'm going to fall asleep."

I laughed softly. Falling asleep in the woods? Probably not a good idea, and I wouldn't be able to carry her back.

"So how are you liking camp so far?" she asked.

"It's good," I said. "It's better than I thought it would be. I mean, after being chased by monsters and stuff."

Vivi nodded. "I've been here for about three years now. I came a bit early after I accidentally shot an arrow through someone's stomach."

I winced. "Oh."

She laughed. "Don't worry, he's alive. He's doing quite well actually."

"Who did you shoot?"

"My step-brother," she said sheepishly. "He's in college. Hundred percent mortal."

I nodded. "Do you stay here year round?"

"Yup," she said. "Once in a while I go home for like the holidays, but other than that, I stay here."

"Is it okay if I ask why?" I said cautiously.

She thought about it and shrugged. "I never thought about it, but I'm not on good or bad terms with my family. Like, I don't like them, but I don't really hate them, you know? It's just… _awkward._"

"Yeah," I said. "I have a bad relationship with my family, except for maybe my mom, but we have times when we just snap. And I just found out that my mom is actually my stepmom, and it just makes things weirder."

"That's a bummer," Vivi said. "I was hoping that you'd be my half-sister. But then again, it's obvious that isn't true seeing your aiming skills." She smiled slyly.

"Oh, shut up," I said, rolling my eyes.

We chatted for a while, and I grew to like her. I hoped that for this one time I'll succeed in making a friend.

One of our conversations went like this:

"So, you're last name is Greene, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"My monster principal's name was Mr. Greene."

"Well, I can assure you that I am probably not related to that monster," she laughed.

"He was a _kallincantzari,_ or something like that, according to Le."

"Definitely not then," she said. "But Greene can be a common surname, I guess."

I shrugged.

"I mean, when I used to go to school, the teacher would always call out, 'Greene!' or maybe it was Green, without the 'e' in the end, and like five of us would turn to her at the same time."

I laughed.

* * *

"Are you sure the game isn't over?" I asked. "I didn't hear anything for at least the past ten minutes."

"I don't know," Vivi said. "I'll go check. Stay here, 'kay?"

She jogged off, and I stood up and stretched. I started pacing around, looking up at the sky. It was dark, and the moon was shining, but that didn't help cease my fear.

I started walking around more to calm myself, and I found myself wandering in the forest. Lost. Oh great. As if I wasn't really bad at direction anyway.

Every sound scared me, and there were rustlings in the trees. I wasn't sure if it were the dryads moving or a monster. I made sure not to step on any branched as I tried to backtrack.

Of course, that worked out nicely and I got even more lost.

Oh, help me, I prayed, though I wasn't sure to whom.

I kept walking around, hoping to find a way back out. I stumbled upon a lake, with water so clear that you could see the whole sky reflected upon it. The lake was surrounded by olive groves, which created a peaceful environment.

An owl hooted in the trees, and I whipped around. A silver owl perched on one of the branches. It let out a small hoot and flew away into the woods. My instinct told me to follow it, but was it safe?

Eh, so what? I thought. It's not going to do any harm, and I had a weapon.

The owl turned around and hooted once in a while. I didn't know if it was teasing me or helping me. It seemed like a mix of both.

I started to see Zeus's Fist again, and the owl turned at me and hooted once more before fading away. Definitely not a regular owl.

"Christine!" Vivi cried, and gave me a bone-crushing hug. "Where were you?"

"In the woods," I said.

"We were so worried!" she said. "Or _I_ was worried. No one knows that you've disappeared yet."

"Is the game over?"

Vivi nodded. "It just ended. We won." She observed me. "Where did you go? There's something different about you."

"Is there?" I said, and looked at myself. Same old me. Nothing different.

"Anyway, let's go," Vivian said.

My sword and armor disappeared and we walked back.

"You're so lucky yours does that!" she complained. "I have to walk in this all the way back!"

I laughed at her antics, but I felt her studying me all the way back.

"You have a different aura," she said. "It's hard to explain. And your eyes look different, but unfortunately I don't carry a mirror with me unlike the Aphrodite kids."

"I wasn't going to use it if you had one."

Vivi shrugged.

"What took you two so long?" Will demanded.

"Will, chill," Malcolm said.

"Oh, that rhymed."

"Please don't make any poetry," Malcolm coughed. "And uh, Christine? What's up with that glow around you?"

Chiron trotted over. "What's going on here?"

"Christine has this weird glow around her," Will said.

I looked at myself, and saw what they meant. I had seen the faint silvery glow before, but I had just assumed that it was the moonlight.

Vivi's eyes widened as if she thought of something. "Christine, your book. It has a symbol of an owl."

I looked at the book and Vivi pointed out the owl that blended in smoothly in with the gold etchings.

"Malcolm, make room in your cabin for another camper," Chiron said. "Christine, move your things to Cabin 6. I'd tell you more, but unfortunately we're not sure if it's accurate. But it seems accurate enough, so just move on in. Hopefully things will straighten out after."

"Yes sir," I mumbled, ignoring the stares of the other demigods.

"Leaving so soon?" Travis asked as he tossed me my backpack.

"Yeah," I said. "You didn't put in anything in here, did you?"

"Of course not!" he said, as if horrified that I had thought that.

I noticed the snickers of the other Hermes children.

"I swear, if you put anything in here—"

"I didn't! I swear."

"—I'm going to kill you even though you're like several years older than me," I said.

Travis chuckled and I went to Cabin 6.

"Hey, Christine," Malcolm said. "Your bunk is that one in the corner. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah," I said, even though _all _the beds were in the corner. I didn't bother mentioning that to him. "The one right against the wall, right?"

"Yup," he said.

"No one claimed the top?"

"No one," he confirmed.

I hung my backpack on the hook near the top bunk.

"Is everyone ready?" Malcolm called.

There was a group of, "Yeah," and "Someone stuffed their sock up my nose!"

"Okay, we're gonna head to the campfire," he said. "I don't want to be the last cabin. Everyone, hustle up!"

We went to the campfire and sat under a flag of an owl on an olive tree branch. The Apollo cabin were leading a sing-a-long, playing on their lyres. The campfire grew bigger and changed color, but it only grew a bit bigger than the standard campfire. I had a feeling that it was able to become bigger, but our moods were a bit down.

"Campers!" Chiron yelled, pounding his hoof. "Silence please!"

The campers stopped talking and looked up at him.

A girl with red frizzy hair came up on stage. I assumed that she was Rachel, the oracle that Vivi had mentioned.

"So as you know, Annabeth, Leo, Jason, and Piper left for Camp Jupiter in San Francisco. Hopefully they'll be able to cooperate with the Romans, and complete the Great Prophecy," Rachel said.

"You're the oracle, can't you predict it?" someone called out.

"I can't predict things when I want to. Only time will tell," she said. Our eyes met, and I quickly looked away. "And once again, we have a new demigod, Christine Vang, who is assumed to be a daughter of Athena?"

She looked at Chiron, and he nodded.

"Yeah. And you know, there's little things popping all over the place because of Gaea's rise," Rachel said. "We're sending demigods out on mini-quests to stop those. We need more volunteers to help stop this huge never-ending tornado in Oklahoma. If you're not volunteering because of a stupid, you've all gotta man up, and you won't be getting one anyway."

A few tentative hands went up.

"Mark, Laurel, Jason," Chiron said. "You three will be leaving tomorrow. Come to the Big House."

He clapped his hands, and the campfire died out.

I headed back to my cabin, but Rachel grabbed my arm. I instinctively flinched and pulled back, but she had a strong grip.

"Pay attention to your dreams," Rachel said. "I have a feeling they'll be important."

I gulped, and nodded.

"You'll be leaving soon, too," she said. "Anyway, 'night."


	9. Chapter 9

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed the next morning. Of course, last night's event didn't help.

When I opened my backpack, an army of spiders came flowing out, causing mass chaos in the Athena cabin. We had to think of creative ways to get them out, and we even made a makeshift wall using the books—that's how desperate we were. And I noticed at least half of the Athena kids shooting me glares as if thinking of the most painful way for me to die. Great, I'm an outcast in my own cabin too.

And there was that strange dream too that kept repeating that line over and over again. _Two campers, a Hunter, and an Amazon shall join. _Something like that. I kept telling it to shut up, but it just repeated it louder and louder, giving me a migraine in the morning.

And if that wasn't enough, I just _had_ to wake up at five in the morning. I couldn't sleep at all in new places and tended to wake up early, no matter how late I fell asleep. Only one other person was awake, but he was getting ready for college, and I didn't want to disturb him.

I rubbed my eyes and got out my book. I found a section about Greek monsters, and started reading through them to refresh my memory, but I couldn't concentrate with my migraine and bad mood. I only got through about five monsters before slamming by book closed and shoving it under my pillow.

I got my clothes and a few other things from my backpack and decided to go get ready since I wasn't feeling like doing anything anyway. Heck, I even took a shower and I absolutely _loathe_ taking showers in the morning.

I looked in the mirror as I dried my hair. I was surprised by what I saw. I finally saw what Vivi meant yesterday. I didn't really look like myself. Like the reflection in the mirror was me, but at the same time, I felt like looking at a stranger.

I was standing taller now—I was always slumping out of habit, and gave up trying to fix it. I held my head up with pride that I never knew existed.

I quickly got changed, taking an extra orange Camp Half-Blood towel with me. It was a pain drying my hair, but I didn't want to cut it. Typical girl stuff I guess.

"Hey, Christine," Malcolm said. "Awake already?"

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"We're going to go to breakfast after cabin inspection which is at eight," Malcolm said. "Until then, well, you can hang out in here. It's not recommended to go outside since the harpies will catch you."

I sighed and went back to bed, but I didn't fall asleep. I tried, but my eyes refused to close. I tried reading again, but I also failed that multiple times.

Finally Malcolm couldn't stand the rustling anymore. "Come on Christine, I'll teach you Ancient Greek. Hopefully it'll calm you down somewhat."

I climbed down my bunk again and went to the desk Malcolm was sitting at.

"Let's start out with the alphabet," he said. "Alpha, beta…"

* * *

So yeah, my morning was Greek torture. And it happened to be that I was _not_ dyslexic so I had a harder time with Ancient Greek than others. But I suspected that even if I _was_ dyslexic, I'd still have trouble because I absolutely suck at learning new languages. For instance, my mom wanted me to learn a third language so she got me a Spanish teacher with my friend, but I couldn't speak it in sentences. Like I knew the words which were pretty easy, but I couldn't put them into sentences.

I was doing that until cabin inspection, and even _that_ was awful.

"You don't have any spiders do you?" Abby asked.

"I hope I don't find any baby spiders in my bunk!"

They said it when they were around me, or maybe that was just a coincidence and I had good ears. I doubted it.

"Okay, there _aren't _any spiders, and that's the least of our worries right now," Malcolm gulped as if he couldn't believe he said that. "Everyone cleans up their own bunk. I want to get a five out of five. If you're smart, you'll clean up if you don't want to do dishes!"

That got everyone moving. I straightened my backpack and made my bed. I never saw the point in that. I mean, it was going to get messed up anyway, and what if there were bedbugs? I remembered reading somewhere that bedbugs preferred neat beds. Maybe it was false, but I didn't want to take my chances.

Travis came in with an inspection scroll. "Five out of five," he groaned. "As always." He saw me and grinned. "I hope you had a pleasant first night, Chris."

"Don't call me that," I said. "And yeah, I had the most _awesome_ night ever, including everyone here. You should've seen it."

Travis was met by a bunch of glares. He swallowed. "I think I'll go now. See you around?"

His voice squeaked at the end as if scared of the Athena campers.

"We're going to go to breakfast. Line up!" Malcolm yelled, and we started hustling. "Bring whatever you need because we're going to go straight to the track after this!"

Running right after eating? That did not sound like a good combination.

"It was the only time left," Malcolm sighed, noticing our expressions. "Head out!"

We went over to the dining hall. We were one of the first ones there. As the others filed in, Chiron stomped his hoof.

"Another good morning to you, campers!" Chiron said. "And according to our cabin inspection… looks like the Hermes cabin will have the honor of doing the dishes today!"

"Weren't _you_ the one who scored our cabin?" Connor said accusingly.

Travis shrugged. "To be honest with you all, it _was_ pretty messy."

There was a chorus of laughs.

"So anyway, I hope this will be another good day for us all!" Chiron said warily.

We cheered and raised our goblets. I wondered what must be going on for Chiron to be that tired. I mean, from what I've heard, he's been alive for _centuries_, so a one-nighter wouldn't tire him that much.

We had a pretty silent breakfast and headed over to the track where the nymphs would train with us.

"Long distance runs!" a nymph named Holly said. "We're going to start off with a mile. Remember, run smart!"

I sighed. I was _awful_ at long distance runs. Short sprints I could somewhat do, but long distance? No way. I got tired before I even ran half of the distance.

Holly blew the conch shell and we ran. I was quickly pushed to the back which wasn't surprising.

"Come on Christine! Just a little farther!" Le said, who came to watch the show.

As if, I thought. I still have half a mile to go.

My cramps were getting worse, and I got them as soon as I started my first lap. Of course, my breakfast didn't help either. I felt like throwing up.

"Okay, so Christine, you need to improve a whole lot to catch up with others," Holly said. "Drop on by whenever you want to practice. I'll be here."

I nodded, even though I wasn't going to come—at least not today. Holly could be a really tough… coach, you can say.

"Chris, you had an extra period of Ancient Greek with me, so I'll give you some extra free time," Malcolm said. "I bet your head is about to burst."

I nodded, and he dismissed me with a wave of his hand.

I sighed. If I really was a daughter of Athena, I was probably one of the "less intelligent" ones if there were any. People had said that I was smart, but in truth, I was an underachiever. I just did the bare minimum unless it was a class I _knew_ I needed extra credit in (like English and science for instance). In that case, I did all the extra credits but did bad on most of my assignments.

But was I really a daughter of Athena? I mean, I didn't have blond hair like most of them (though some of them did have other hair colors), and I didn't have gray eyes. Maybe I did. I don't know. If I did have gray eyes, they were _really_ unnoticeable.

I walked over to the Hecate cabin hoping that Lou was there. I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

I walked in, and was met by a strong smell of spicy herbs. I sneezed.

"Oh, sorry!" Lou said. She waved her hand, and the bubbling in the cauldron stopped. The smell stopped too. "So why are you here? Christine, right?"

I nodded. "I was um, wondering if you could help me with this," I said and showed her my book.

"What about it?"

"Well, it seems like it'll take too much time to get it out of my backpack and to put it away, and time is vital," I said. "You might get killed during that time."

Lou nodded as if approving my thoughts. "Yeah. Then I'll try to teach you how to summon things."

She waved her hand again and my book disappeared. "Don't panic now. If you do it right, it'll come into your hand when you think about it. Like this." She put out her hand and my book appeared out of nowhere. It disappeared again a few seconds later. "You try."

"Uh, what do I do?"

"Think of your book, and imagine it in your hands," Lou said. "It comes easily after practice."

I put out my hand and stared at it, thinking of my book. After about a minute of staring, it appeared in my hands. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. I was exhausted.

Lou nodded, and looked up from her spellbook. "Good. Try it again now. Disappearing is easier than summoning it."

She didn't give me any specific instructions and I imagined it gone. It disappeared easily.

"Nice. Now do that ten more times. I'm timing you."

"What?"

* * *

I spent my free time doing that and fainting on the floor of her cabin.

"Malcolm's waiting for you at the archery lane. You'd better hurry," she hummed, and I raced out the door. "Good luck!"

I raced to the archery lane, feeling the chilly air which was strange. It was summer and it was New York. Plus it was usually sunny here, unless the weather was allowed in. Strange.

"Sorry!" I panted. I summoned my book in thirty seconds which was a big improvement and summoned my bow and arrow.

"I'll let you go today," he said. "Chiron's here to help out, maybe he can give you some pointers."

Chiron nodded and motioned for the end of the field. He encouraged me to try one shot to see where I was. He winced when he saw my arrow embed itself in the wall above the target.

"Well, not as bad as Percy, I guess," he said. "Here, try it like this."

He kept adjusting my position, but it didn't work. The closest I got was in the white circle, and I wasn't even trying to hit the target then.

"Oh, maybe another time," Chiron muttered at the end of the session. He looked up at the sky as if it was troubling him.

"Is it getting a bit cold?" I asked, rubbing my arms.

He shook his head. "It's impossible. Go on to your next class now."

"Yes, sir," I said, and ran off.

"We're doing one-on-one again," Malcolm said. "We're going to be practicing with a dagger this time. It's important for a child of Athena to be skilled with all weapons."

Definitely not me.

I summoned a dagger, a short bronze blade with a stone encrusted in the hilt.

"You hold it like this," he said. "Now you strike it like that. A sword has longer reach, but a knife can be good for anyone that's smart enough to use it. Annabeth's a great example, only she's not here right now."

I actually liked sword fighting… or dagger fighting. Whatever you want to call it. I tried out javelins and spears during free time with Vivi, but I ended up nearly killing her instead.

"I'm lucky that I'm quickly, or I'd be skewered by now," she said.

I laughed bitterly. "Thanks."

"I think you'd be good at it if you try a bit more," she said.

"Sure," I scoffed. I rubbed my arms. "Is it just me, or is it getting a bit chilly?"

She shrugged. "I think so. Maybe. I'm not too sensitive to cold."

Eventually we had to split up again, but I couldn't help feeling that something was wrong. Maybe it_ was_ just me, but for the first time, I doubted it.


	10. Chapter 10

Camp was getting better. I started talking to a few more people and I was improving on my skills. Like now I could translate Ancient Greek texts into English (but not vice versa, unfortunately), and I could somewhat fight with a spear.

My archery skills remained bad as usual.

But other than that, things seemed to loosen up a bit. We wouldn't be any good in a fight if we were constantly wiped out after every day and if we weren't having fun. It was a _camp_ for Zeus's sake. So they went back to their regular schedule a few days ago.

"You really need to get a new hairstyle," Vivi said as I finished my combat training. "Opponents can grab your hair since it's so long."

"I'm not cutting it," I said defensively. "Besides, the best I can do is tie it up in a ponytail."

"Doesn't help," she remarked. "It's just the same, just bunched up. You can put it into a bun."

"It makes my head heavy," I said. "I have a lot of _thick_ hair if you haven't noticed."

"A braid?"

"I don't _braid_ hair. I don't even know how they work!" I said.

Of course, as a girl with hair as long as mine, people would probably expect me to know how to braid hair. I learned how to braid at a pretty late age, and let's just say that I didn't like it and I only knew the basic braid.

"I'll teach you," she said.

"The one thing I don't need at all right now is a braiding lesson."

"Nonsense," Vivi sang. "I'll teach you how to fishtail."

"Vivi," I sighed. "Braids all look the same, and they're really uncomfortable."

She ignored me and pulled me down into a sitting position by the lake.

"Now, Aphrodite's kids are _amazing_ at braiding hair," Vivi said.

"Your point?"

"Just be quiet and learn," she huffed.

An hour later, she was testing me on how well I paid attention to her lesson and expected me to do a fishtail, a French braid, and a Dutch braid.

"They're all the same!" I repeated.

Vivi groaned. "I tried."

"Braids don't fit me anyway."

"You didn't even look!" Vivi said spreading her arms. "You just took the braid off right when I finished!"

"I guess you've learned _your_ lesson then," I shrugged. "Don't braid my hair."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I heard that California got a massive rainfall a week ago," I said. "Strange."

Vivi shrugged. "Maybe Poseidon was in a good mood and decided that the drought should end."

"It hardly rains in California," I hissed. "And if that doesn't convince you, it _snowed_ yesterday. In California!"

"Now _that's _news," Vivi said.

"Of course it is! It's the summer for gods' sake!" I said. "It's snowing outside too if you take a look!"  
I pointed out the borders where piles of snow were gathering up. It wasn't coming inside camp because of the boundaries, but the clouds didn't part around us.

"Maybe the gods are going wacko with their Greek and Roman states?" Vivi said weakly.

Chiron had gotten some news from the Seven and told us at the campfire the other day. Of course, they already knew about the Romans, but I guess our relationship between us were completely broken. Yeesh.

"I don't think they'd be crazy enough to make it snow in the summer," I said. Something cold fell on my head. I looked up and saw snow gently falling. "Vivi, it's snowing."

"But that's impossible!" she said.

"Well, that doesn't explain this," I said motioning to the gathering snow.

"Drat. I hate snow," Clarisse grumbled and went to the Big House to alert Chiron. Some of the other campers were looking around, not sure whether to roll around in the snow or to panic.

"It's just snow though," Vivi said. "Maybe it's just a mistake."

I looked at her skeptically. I knew trying to convince her of something else would be pointless. Maybe her trying to convince herself that everything would be all right was a habit of hers.

"It's getting cold," I said. "You want to go by the fire? My cabinmates would yell at me if I went in covered in snow."

"Sure," she said. She shivered slightly as we warmed up at the fire. "You know, Hestia used to tend to this fire before Olympus got closed."

"Oh," I said. "Do you think she'll be back if Olympus ever opens again?"

Vivi nodded, not noticing my use of _if._ "Definitely."

"Hey, but you know during my first game of Capture the Flag, right?" I asked. "How come you didn't seem surprised about the shining thing until later?"

"Huh?" she said, and took a moment to calculate what my words meant. "Oh! So you know how Apollo's also a god of healing right? Well, I'm more talented in the healing part than like archery, so sometimes I can see these auras around things and people. That doesn't mean I'm bad at archery though. I might be in the lower class in the Apollo cabin, but maybe really talented archers are like at the same level as me."

"Oh," I said. "Makes sense."

"Hey, you two," Malcolm said. "Lessons are canceled for the day. Back to your cabins."

"Okay," I said and got up. "See you."

"We'll still have the campfire," Malcolm said as we walked back. "Hopefully we'll clear off some things by then."

That led to more Ancient Greek tutoring from Malcolm.

"Campfire!" David whooped as we ran outside.

The snow had been cleared out over the amphitheater, though it was still snowing. Chiron look confused since he didn't allow the snow to come in.

But we had delicious s'mores that tasted much better in the cold and our standard campfire songs.

Chiron stomped his hoof for quiet. "Our Oracle has something to say."

Rachel stepped up. "Yes. I feel like this calls for a quest. Not those little missions we've been having, but an actual quest, though not a big one, granted."

"What makes you think that just snowing deserves a quest?" Mark yelled.

"The weather has going out of control all over the country," Rachel said. "Something is causing this, maybe one of Gaea's minions."

"But we have the war to think about as well," Chiron said.

We started mumbling to ourselves until Drew spoke up.

"Then maybe we should send out most least likely members," she said sweetly. "That way we can have all the _useful_ ones stay here and fight. If they complete their quest, then great! If not, we still have our best fighters."

I bit my tongue. I knew I shouldn't have gotten on her bad side. I had been trying to prank Travis to get revenge on the spider thing, but I accidentally poured the glue on Drew instead. She couldn't change clothes or style her hair for two or three days.

I saw Vivi glare at her. "Maybe you're volunteering yourself for the quest then, Drew."

"Burn!" John chuckled.

"Well, hun—"

"Be quiet!" Rachel yelled. Everyone shut up immediately, as if scared of her. "Drew, that's not nice. And Vivi, just chill. Then like Drew said, we won't send our most useless member, but our newest camper. Chiron, is that okay with you?"

He nodded. "Sounds reasonable enough." He said it like he put a lot of thought into it.

Rachel looked at me. "Christine, you okay with this?"

I realized with a shock that I was the newest camper. Definitely not what I was expecting. I looked back and saw Lea from the Aphrodite cabin shaking her head at me in pity.

"Say yes," Malcolm hissed.

"What?" I said. I could say no. I might be embarrassed, but that wasn't new.

"You might be able to stall Gaea's forces and give us some time," he murmured.

"Christine?" Chiron called.

"Oh! Um, yeah. I guess," I said in a hurry. I covered my mouth when I realized what I said. _Oh no._

Cue the laughter.

Rachel swooned and three campers set her down on a tripod that was brought to the stage. Green smoke came out of her mouth, and I gasped. The others leaned back from her as if the green smoke was a plague.

"_Four is the number that started this all,_

_Unsuccessful, their faith will fall,_

_The youth, the owl, the victor, and the fortune shall fend,_

_But three is the number that will remain in the end."_

The green smoke dissipated, and she almost fell into the snow. Luckily one of the demigods steadied her.

"So it's decided that the new punk will go," Clarisse said. "The owl. Now for the other three. Probably Hebe, Nike, and Tyche."

"Ooh, that rhymes," one of Vivi's half-brothers said. "Maybe I should write a poem—"

"No," Will said. "As much as I think that would be a good idea, not now. Go on."

"You guys can pick whatever runts you want," Clarisse said.

"What Clarisse means is that we should choose the ones that could be of most help on the quest," Chiron said. "Any volunteers from those three cabins?"

The crickets cried in the woods. _Cricket, cricket._

"I'll go," one of the guys from the Nike cabin stood up. He was around my age, maybe a bit older. His cabinmates looked at him with pride. "If that's okay with her."

He said _her _as if I was a thing that wasn't even worth mentioning. Like the thing that the dog left on the carpet.

I nodded.

"Hebe, Tyche?" Chiron asked.

There was a small scuffle in the Hebe cabin, with choruses of "You!" "No you!" and "Why me?" I thought that they were taking the youth thing a bit too seriously.

Eventually a girl was pushed up. "We'll send Dixie!"

Dixie had brown wavy hair with red highlights that fell a bit below her shoulders and big brown eyes. She wasn't fat, but seemed to still have a bit of baby fat. Somehow she made it work and it gave her an innocent child-like look.

"We're still waiting for Tyche," Clarisse sighed. She brought out her spear and started spinning it casually in her hands.

"Wait!" Lucas said.

They were in a tight huddle and it looked like they were… picking sticks? I sighed.

"I'm going," an Asian guy with black hair sighed.

"So Colin Shining, Dixie Diaz, and Emil Lin will go with Christine Vang will go stop whatever is causing this storm," Chiron said.

"Yes, sir," I said quietly.

"You will leave tomorrow in the morning," he said. "Argus will take you into the city. Take today to pack your things. Feel free to stay here for a bit to get to know each other. Cooperation between teammates is important, and I have a feeling that you all don't know each other." He chuckled and dismissed the demigods from the campfire. The campfire got put out when he left, only leaving us four.

"I'll ask Jane to pack your things so take your time," Malcolm said and went back to his cabin.

"So, um," Emil said. "Hi?"

We all sat in the front row, and I sat a bit away from them.

"Hi," I mumbled.

"Why do I have to go on this quest?" Colin sighed.

"You were the first one to volunteer if I recall," I said.

He scowled and rolled his eyes.

"This whole cooperating thing isn't working," Dixie said. "Let's just introduce ourselves and start from there. I'll start. I'm Dixie Diaz, daughter of Hebe."

"I'm Emil Lin, son of Tyche," he said. "Probably the one with the worst luck."

I suppressed a smile. "I'm Christine Vang, supposed daughter of Athena."

"Colin Shining. Son of Nike," he said. He glared at me with his green eyes. He was probably _very_ competitive and prideful. Maybe arrogant, but that could prove to be false.

I didn't look at Colin and stared at the ashes of the campfire.

"You know, I don't feel very lucky for being on this quest. No offense," Emil said.

I nodded silently and put my head down. My long black hair blocked the others from view, wondering if I would come back alive.


End file.
